I agree with most of your statement rickair7777, but the following is more specific to Lakes, so I wouldn't expect you to know about this. The patches are part of the "preflight inspection checklist", so we do have a certain amount of responsibility in knowing what a "legal" patch is; especially after seeing what I saw a few days ago: 3 Feds following an FO during a walk around, watching his every move, and asking him a barrage of questions. Then, two of them break off during the walk around, and stare at me as I'm starting a different aircraft. Those two sat there with their arms crossed, watching my every move as I slowly taxied the aircraft out in full ground fine, even riding the brakes a little to avoid a taxi faster than a "fast paced walk". Good times...but all too common at Lakes these days, unfortunately.