As for the PPL, are you an EAA member? If there is a local chapter, join it. I spent a year (1998) helping to form a flying club, and the flying club was all from the Lincoln EAA chapter. We pooled money for a plane, our club-member lawyer handled the incorporation, we leased the plane to ourselves, and charged ourselves high monthly dues and LOW hourly wet rates (idea being we'd go broke if the plane wasn't in the air). The Ts were crossed and the i's were all dotted in December 1998, and my first lesson was Dec. 31. The time spent organizing saved me large amounts of cash.
When the club "graduated" to a Cherokee 180, I finally ended up with the club Cessna 150. And by then, of course, I knew the plane pretty well...
Logbooks? After 40 years, "complete" logbooks are not complete. I, for instance, wonder why my 1967 G has 1971 wingtips. The logbooks don't tell me, yet they go all the way back to the day it was first flown.
