Mike writes:

I always give each side a good heave up and down for this very reason, so
such can easily be checked on the preflight for impending failure.

It is unlikely that you can create the same magnitude and type of stress with
"a good heave" that the aircraft would or could experience in flight.

Certainly. But that's what pre-flight and annual inspections are for. My
A&P found a cracked bulkhead in the tail on my first annual after I bought
the plane. It had probably been that way for years. Such problems you
mentioned are common, but how many airframes do you see breaking up in
flight because of it?

More than necessary. And an annual inspection provides a year for things to
go wrong in flight.

The preflight is just a simple way to find out if the aircraft is airworthy
to the best of the pilot's ability. I never suggested it was anything else,
so you should go back and check your inference for any degree of
reasonableness.

You said that if a pilot doesn't find damage, he hasn't done a preflight,
which implies that a preflight will find all damage. Have you changed your
mind?

So why do you take a simple statement and take it to the nth degree?

It is only necessary to show that the statement cannot stand, which has been
done.

The previous poster (who has no flight experience, btw) condemned partial
ownership because another owner might "damage" the airplane and not tell
anyone. It was a ridiculous statement to begin with because a proper
preflight and regular inspections make such a non issue to the safety of
flight.

Except that this is not true.

You made an absolute statement where a qualified one was required.

If you don't want to get flamed, try working your way up the
thread and figuring out what the context is before you jump on a comment and
try to make it something it isn't.

In the future, structure your statements more carefully, and you will not find
yourself in a corner in debate.

My "comment" was far more valid than yours, BTW.

Your statement that, in effect, a preflight cannot fail to find damage and
that a pilot who does not find damage has not done a preflight inspection was
manifestly false, and does a disservice to pilots who do a thorough preflight
inspection and yet die anyway as a consequence of damage that no preflight
inspection can detect.