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
