Lost log books

"B A R R Y" wrote in message
. net...
Aluckyguess wrote:
I looked at an A36 and was thinking about buying it, but he lost the
logs. My question is how much does this usually decrease the value of the
plane.


When were the logs lost?
2005
Am I wrong in thinking that if you have and annual done and the mechanic
signs it off. All AD's and such are done that the plane is not flight worthy
or the FAA, insurance would have a problem with that.
In looking at the plane it has original interior and paint looks amazing for
a 73 better than most 80's that I have looked at.
All in all the owner will not sell it for what I want to pay for a plane
with no logs. I would have no problem flying it with a good pre-buy. Logs or
no logs.

Logs lost last month can be far a different scenario than logs lost 20
years ago for a 30 year old airplane.

Aluckyguess wrote:

All in all the owner will not sell it for what I want to pay for a plane
with no logs. I would have no problem flying it with a good pre-buy.

The price is the real problem! With an airplane, I think you've got to
think about when YOU are going to sell it as you negotiate a price. G

My co-owner and I just went through the same issue. We're looking to
move from the Sundowner to a faster craft. The subject of our interest
had lost logs in 1986, with an owner who's lost his medical. Based on
the details, and the overhaul date of the engine, we're quite sure it
was gear-upped. We really didn't have a huge problem with the log
restart, as it's been through 19-20 annuals. We figured by now any
shoddy repairs should have shown themselves.

Our problem was that the current owner did not take a lost log hit off
the price when he bought it several years ago, so he can't sell it for
what it's really worth. We felt that the fact the airplane had not sold
for a what our research shows was a very good to downright cheap price,
if it had complete logs, was real proof that we'd have a problem later on.

Aluckyguess wrote :
Am I wrong in thinking that if you have and annual done
and the mechanic signs it off.

That's the expensive part. Without any logs, the mechanic will
have to redo or visually verify every AD that has ever been issued for
the plane. On top of that, even after that is done, the resale value
is going to suffer until the plane has built up many years of well
logged maintenance.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)


--
JGalban
Posted at www.flight.org