11,482 Cessna 182 Skylanes are currently on the FAA registry — the step-up single from the 172, built with a bigger engine and more useful load for owners who outgrow a trainer. Twenty model designators are still flying, led by the 182P (2,100), 182Q (1,564), and modern fuel-injected 182T (967), with the retractable-gear 182RG Skylane RG a rare outlier at just 5 airframes.
Why Skylane buyers should check further back than the current tail
182s tend to be flown harder and longer than trainers — many spend years as backcountry, float, or personal cross-country airplanes — and the model's production stretches back to the 1950s, meaning plenty of airframes have changed hands several times. Because the FAA can reissue a cancelled N-number to a different airplane after five years (14 CFR 47.15/47.17), a search of only the tail number currently painted on the aircraft can miss an accident that happened under an earlier registration — or attribute someone else's accident to the airplane you're buying. A serial-number cross-match is the only way to be sure which history belongs to which airframe.
What a $79 report adds
Current FAA registration status, prior registrants, recent FAA filings (bills of sale, security agreements/liens), full NTSB accident and incident history, and the serial-number cross-match that catches an accident hiding under a prior tail number.
Check a specific tail number
Use our free tail-number lookup to check registration status and a summary of what a full report would show, or see our used aircraft pre-purchase checklist for what to budget alongside a history check.