A formal aircraft title search from a title company typically runs a few hundred dollars — commonly quoted in the $300–$500 range for a straightforward piston aircraft — and takes roughly three to seven business days. Rush service costs more. Complex histories, corporate ownership, or international elements push it higher.
What you are paying for
A title search is a professional examination of the aircraft's file at the FAA Civil Aviation Registry in Oklahoma City, resulting in an opinion on whether the title is clean. It covers:
- The chain of title — every recorded bill of sale back through the aircraft's history, and whether there are gaps or defects in it.
- Recorded security interests — bank liens, mechanic's liens, tax liens — and whether each has been released.
- Any other recorded instrument clouding ownership.
You are buying two things: the search itself, and a professional standing behind the conclusion. On a six-figure transaction, both are worth having. Title companies normally bundle it with escrow so that money and the signed bill of sale change hands simultaneously.
What it is not
A title search is about ownership. It is not a damage history, not an accident search, and not an airworthiness assessment. A title can be perfectly clean on an airplane that has been through two accidents. Those are separate questions and separate checks.
What you can do yourself first, free
Before spending anything, you can establish most of what would kill a deal:
- Registration status and current registered owner — public, instant, at the FAA Aircraft Registry.
- Accident history — public at NTSB CAROL. Search by serial number as well as tail number, because a rebuilt airframe may be flying under a new registration.
- The document images themselves — the FAA makes the aircraft's recorded documents available electronically at no charge, behind an identity-verified login. Nobody needs to sell you these.
The sensible sequence
Screen first, then close. Use free and cheap records checks to decide whether an aircraft is worth pursuing at all — that is where most bad deals die. Once you are actually buying, pay for the title search and the escrow. Skipping the second step to save a few hundred dollars on a six-figure airplane is a bad trade.