(de)value of missing logs?

[onwards]

Question to you experienced owners and pilots:

Say I found a plane I am interested in, it passes a comprehensive prebuy inspection/annual just fine, and flies "straight and true".

The plane misses the first 1000 hours of its logs, but has since logged another 3000, with two engine overhauls. It was registered in a different country and imported here twenty years ago without those initial logs. It is all properly documented.

What value reduction would you assign to the missing first logs? think in terms of percentage of the purchase price. Is 20% a sufficient hit? (that is, $10K off $50K for a comparable plane).

 

[Jim Logajan]

Wiithout the logs, how do you know the first 1,000 hours isn't the first 10,000 hours?

He could estimate worst case; there are only so many hours in a year. Even for a drug-running plane, only so many hours it is likely able to fly in a year. So one should be able to put a realistic estimate on the upper range. Some Google searching suggests that 600 hours/year may be a reasonable upper limit. Likely less.

How many years was it being used for illegal activity?