Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes C150K Logbook Fraud

Tim, this in addition to the post I filed earlier today.

I think if the airplane has been flying for 30 years it's probably OK. I think you can use the damage history as a bargaining chip in negotiating the price. If you and your A&P think it's a good airplane and you can get the price down some I think you should go for it. When you sell the airplane you of course will not claim NDH, but level with the prospective buyer.

I have seen airplanes that were basket cases restored to good as new. Of course there is a stigma attached. If you can get a good enough price on the airplane now you don't have to get as much when you sell. And if the buyer is aware of the situation it may not be much of a deterrent. I think you're miffed because you felt you were blindsided.

George

When I bought my plane I asked if there was any damage history I was told there was none. I did a search for damage history and found none. Last week someone on a post mentioned doing a google search on your N number. I did and you guessed it, the first year out of the factory, two accidents, and in the same year! Substantial damage! One on take off and one landing. At a flight school in California. It just keeps coming.

Tim,
Welcome to aviation. When we get into aviation we have a preconceived, maybe over-inflated notion that all who partake in the aviation game are folks of high principals.
Sorry, but it just ain't so. You really gotta be careful out there man. I've seen all sorts of wierdness in logbooks and a whole lot of it most assuredly was not accidental.
I recently inspected a twin Cessna for annual that had some really crappy repairs in the aft tail cone. The repairs had obviously been left out of the log books on purpose. And after the fact, a mechanic then filed a 337 with the FAA detailing that based on aircraft records (which subsequently, I could not find)the entire tail had previously been replaced with one from another aircraft by persons unknown and that he found the repairs to be in accordance with the AC43.13. Talk about putting your butt on the line. If that wasn't enough, this aircraft had been flying 20 years that way and had seen plenty of annuals and pre-buys. The buyer said "it really says alot for you guys that you look things over closely enough to catch that stuff". I told him "It makes me feel bad for the profession that so many folks thought that this work was satisfactory". That said, there are a lot of really good folks out there also. You just have to search them out. You should find a really good reputable mechanic with a strong structural background if you want to stay out of trouble! God luck with all your aviation endeavors.

Mike Sammons

Mike is right. Ya think that what with all the hoops we have to jump through in this activity, that there might - just might maybe be a bit higher level of intergrity than on your local used-car lot that advertises at 3:30 am Sunday morning with the screaming commercials.

[color:"blue"] Not so. [/color]

Naive Ed, gentle and trusting soul I am learned the lesson. And boy, was It ever a wake-up call - almost as bad as when I found out there ain't no Santa Claus, no tooth fairy, Peter Rabbit ain't for real, the Cowboy doesn't always get the girl and...

Well, you get the idea.

Reader's Digest condensed version of my own personal tale of woe. In April, I had the first annual on my bird, and found out that the compressions had gone south (actually, farther than south ) in the space of 11 months and 60 hours. This escapade has been chronicled in a few threads I rather painfully reported in the forum. Everyone I talk to says that they shouldn't have been THAT bad THAT soon unless they were alrady in stinky condition. However, the prebuy/annual reflected NO deficiencies in this area.

Think someone might've just fudged/misread/transposed by "accident" the compressions - And I mean ALL by accident?

[color:"red"] Imagine that. [/color] But, nobody's perfect, I guess.

Hmmmm...73/80, rather than 37/80.

Uh huh. Yep. You betcha!

Heaven forbid anyone be less-than-honest in [color:"red"] THIS [/color] business.

Wash my mouth out with aviation hydro fluid for even thinking such a thought, much less voicing it! After all, it was only 3 of the 4 cylinders (and about $4000 plus labour and down time 'cause I replaced all 4 of 'em).

Just a simple misunderstanding, by golly.




Yo, Mike!!! Sorry!, But I couldn't resist! Is this only a typo, or perhaps a subtle prayer?! L0L!!! ROFLMAO!!!

Someone - score me a beer! (Or two).

Well, it looks like many folks here are finding out the reality that logbooks are only as accurate as the particular person making the particular entry at any particular time. I like the intention of logbooks. And they can be a useful tool in finding out how an aircraft has been generally maintained. But that is all they are good for.

.........................................Well, not all! They do serve one purpose. And they serve that one purpose very well. And that is as a "Gotcha" of any poor owner or mechanic if the FAA has cause to come snooping around. If there was not this liability over every logbook entry, I believe you would find more "honesty" out there in filling them out.

Personally, I am diligent in logging my maintenance entries for yet another reason. There is an IA that puts his neck on the line every time the aircraft is annualled. This is something every owner should keep in mind every time he works on his own airplane.