Aircraft Buying Guides — Records, Checklists & Model Guides

Guides for aircraft buyers

No fluff, no recycled forum lore: every guide is built on the official public record — and says plainly what that record cannot tell you.

Buyer's handbook

How to check an aircraft's history before buying

The complete method: five public record layers, in order, and what each one can and cannot tell you.

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Buyer's handbook

What an NTSB record actually means for a used aircraft

A prior NTSB record is not automatically a dealbreaker — but only if you read it correctly. Here's how.

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Buyer's handbook

Understanding airworthiness directives — the legally binding list

ADs apply by type; compliance lives only in the logbooks. The gap between those two facts is where money is lost.

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Buyer's handbook

Service Difficulty Reports, explained

The FAA's record of what actually breaks in service — and how to point your pre-buy inspection with it.

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Buyer's handbook

The pre-buy inspection: a records-first checklist

Records tell the inspector where to look; they never replace the inspection. The order that saves you money.

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Buyer's handbook

How to read FAA registry data

The registry is free and public — and easy to misread. The fields that matter, and the ones that mislead.

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Buyer's handbook

Aircraft ownership history: what it tells you (and what it doesn't)

A rapid succession of owners is a question, not a verdict. How to read the registration trail honestly.

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Buyer's handbook

Buying a used helicopter: what's different

Rotorcraft carry time-limited parts and a drivetrain a fixed-wing buyer never thinks about. What to check first.

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Model buyer's guides

What the records reveal, type by type: fleet size, most-reported systems, open airworthiness directives, accident record and ownership turnover — computed from the raw data, refreshed at every sync.