Does anyone know the specific damage history regs the guy is breaking? Playing devils advocate here, I was under the impression that hail damage isn't something that has to be included in the logs because it doesn't effect the flight characteristics of the airplane. The seller certainly isn't being honest but is he being criminal?
Hail damage, depending on the severity of it, can cause skin cracking at the dents, and merely filling them with bondo or the lightweight stuff and repainting is generally not considered "kosher" in the aircraft maintenance biz. I do not think that Cessna has a service bulletin covering this (but they should) that would set damage limits. On large aircraft (where the hulls are pressurized) this kind of damage is of great concern. On unpressurized aircraft, while not the same level of concern, it still needs to be looked at, and reinspected at each annual. As far as airwothinesess goes, its a huge grey area, that I for one would not want to tread into.
Had I been Herb, I would have made a clear, concise log book entry detailing the date of the damage, the approximate number and size and depth of the dents in each area, so that future owners would either know, or the logs would have to disappear, greatly lowering the value of the airplane, even if it were "repaired", legimately or not.
Charles
