On Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:20:06 -0700, unicate wrote:

"Aluckyguess" :
I was thinking you could have a fun summer flying to all the places that
worked on the airplane re-creating the logs.
Would this be as good as original if done? be replaced or re-done.

God forbid, if anything happened while you were having that fun summer
flying all over the place re-creating logs and the plane were totaled,
would the insurance cover the full value if you the documentation was
incomplete? Why would you want to put yourself in that situation? It
isn't as if finding an A36 with complete documentation is difficult.

While I agree having a complete set of logs for a given aircraft
is a desirable thing, in the event of a total loss, the insurance
company will pay the stated hull value regardless of whether
or not the aircraft has a "complete set of logs". The stipulations
of the policy will be followed to the letter, and typically, nowhere
in said policy does it say "we only agree to pay if you don't lose
your logs". You will have to prove the aircraft was in annual /
airworthy at the time of the loss, etc.

I'll also allow as how having logs missing on an aircraft doesn't
necessarily mean an automatic "pass" (i.e., forget it, go look for
another aircraft) but it does raise a flag while looking at an
aircraft I'm contemplating purchasing.

My "Murphy's Law" meter gets pegged over on the "what is the owner
trying to hide by claiming the logs have been lost" side of the
scale. 8^)

FWIW, my '54 C-170B had it's 1st log missing (several years worth,
from '54 to the early 60's) but had everything from then on. After
I had a look at the airplane and the rest of the logs, I reasoned that
there was sufficient documentation for decades of ownership /
operation and that I could live with not having the 1st logbook (it
was claimed to have been lost by the way).

My current aircraft ('54 C-180) has everything dating back to day
one, including the initial test flight entry by the Cessna test pilot
in 1954.

Bela P. Havasreti