Most of the money you can lose buying a used aircraft is lost before the pre-buy inspection, because the wrong airplane got that far. The records checks are cheap and fast. Do them first.
Stage 1 — Paper, before you make an offer
All of this is available from public sources in an afternoon.
- Registration status. Is it currently registered, or expired, or deregistered? An expired registration is not a deal-breaker but it changes the paperwork and it tells you something about the owner.
- Registered owner. Does the name on the FAA record match the person selling it to you? If the seller is a broker or a trustee, that is normal — but you want to know it now.
- Ownership chain. How many owners, and how quickly did they turn over? Five owners in six years is a question worth asking.
- Accident and incident history — searched by serial number as well as tail number, because a repaired airframe can be re-registered under a new N-number and a tail-number-only search will miss it entirely.
- Airworthiness Directives for the make and model. Some ADs are expensive and recurring. Know which ones apply before you fall in love with the airplane.
Stage 2 — The logbooks
Ask for the complete logbooks and read them before the pre-buy, not during it. What you are looking for:
- Gaps. Missing years are the single most common way damage history disappears.
- Form 337s — major repairs and alterations. Every one of them has a story; get the story.
- Engine and propeller time since overhaul, and whether the overhaul was done by whom you would want.
- Compliance records for the ADs you identified in stage 1.
Stage 3 — The pre-buy inspection
Use a mechanic who knows the type and who is working for you, not the seller's shop and not the seller's friend. The pre-buy is not an annual inspection and should not be sold to you as one. Give your inspector everything you found in stages 1 and 2 — a known repair history tells them exactly where to look.
Stage 4 — Closing
- Title search through an aircraft title company, to confirm no unreleased liens.
- Escrow, so funds and the signed bill of sale move together.
- Insurance bound before you take delivery, not after.
The order matters
Records first, logbooks second, mechanic third, money last. Buyers who invert this pay a mechanic several hundred dollars to inspect an airplane that a five-minute records search would have ruled out.