The pre-buy inspection: a records-first checklist

Why records come before wrenches

Walk a mechanic up to an unfamiliar aircraft with no history and you pay for a blind search. Hand them the record first — the accident history, the reported-failure pattern for the type, the applicable airworthiness directives, the ownership trail — and the physical inspection becomes targeted: confirm these specific things, check these specific logbook entries, look hard at these specific systems. Records don't replace the inspection; they aim it.

Step one: assemble the paper

• Registry identity. Serial number on the data plate, the logbooks and the FAA registry must all agree. Registrations get reused; the serial is the airframe's real identity.
• Serial-reconciled accident history. The NTSB record for this airframe — matched by serial, not just tail number — and the documented repair for anything it shows.
• The type's failure pattern. Which systems this model generates the most Service Difficulty Reports on, so you know where the type is weak.
• Applicable airworthiness directives. The list for the airframe, engine and propeller, with the recurring ones flagged.
• Ownership trail. How often it changed hands lately — neutral on its own, but a question to ask if it churned.

A TailGuard report assembles all of this for a tail number automatically; you can also build it by hand from the free public sources — see our full method guide.

Step two: the logbook audit

Most of a pre-buy's value is in the books, not under the cowling. Your mechanic should confirm:

• Continuous, complete logbooks — airframe, engine and propeller — with no unexplained gaps. Missing logbooks knock real money off value and can hide real problems.
• Every applicable AD ticked off, number by number, with dates and signatures; recurring ADs current, not overdue.
• Engine and airframe times consistent across the books and against the most recent annual inspection.
• Major repairs and alterations properly documented and approved — and matching anything the accident record shows.

Step three: the physical inspection — by your mechanic

Have a licensed A&P/IA you chose perform the physical inspection — never the seller's shop, and never a friend-of-a-friend doing you a favour. Beyond confirming the records match metal, the physical check looks for what the public record can never show: corrosion, hidden or undocumented damage, control rigging, engine compression and borescope condition, and evidence of how the aircraft was actually stored and flown. Fly-before-buy and a fresh compression check are cheap next to what they can reveal.

Walk-away signals

None of these is automatically fatal, but each one earns a hard second look — and a seller who resists is answering the question for you:

• Missing or discontinuous logbooks.
• A damage record with no matching repair entry.
• Overdue recurring airworthiness directives.
• A seller who won't allow an independent pre-buy, or insists on their own mechanic.
• A rapid succession of recent owners with no innocent explanation.