Identify the aircraft and legal seller, commission a defined professional search, review the findings and track each required resolution. Public registration information is a starting point, not a complete title opinion.
How do I perform an aircraft title search before buying?
Start by identifying the aircraft and seller, then engage a suitable aviation title professional or attorney for a written search with a defined scope. Review the resulting documents and findings, assign each unresolved item and obtain the required closing evidence. You can gather useful public information yourself, but a registration lookup alone does not establish complete legal ownership or reveal every possible claim. The FAA does not perform title searches for purchasers, as its FAA: clear title and recorded releases guidance explains.
This step-by-step guide is written for a first-time buyer preparing the search engagement and reviewing the deliverable. It complements the broader title and ownership-transfer guide. Its original contribution is a search-request packet and a finding-to-action log. The aim is to make the work specific enough to commission and understand, while leaving legal validity, enforceability and priority questions with the professionals appointed to evaluate them.
Step 1: make an aircraft identity sheet
Record the registration number, make, model and serial number supplied for the actual candidate. Ask the technical reviewer to help verify identity against the aircraft and records. Give the title professional any known prior registration numbers or component information relevant to the proposed transaction. Do not guess at an uncertain serial number to make a search form complete. Mark the question and resolve it before a report about the wrong property becomes part of the purchase file.
Keep this sheet with the current advertisement and proposed agreement. If a correction occurs, tell the people using the old information and confirm which report or document needs revision. A simple version date can help the team avoid mixed identifiers. These are suggested coordination practices, not a government form. They are particularly useful when a broker, shop, lender and closing provider are all obtaining information from different participants.
Step 2: identify the legal seller and proposed signer
Ask for the seller's exact legal name and the identity and capacity of the person expected to sign. A company, trust, estate or representative may need supporting authority information. Let counsel and the title professional specify the evidence. The person answering telephone calls or arranging a viewing is not necessarily the legal owner or authorized signer. Distinguish their contact role from the legal capacity needed for the documents.
14 CFR 47.5: registration applicants and ownership distinction explains why registration is not an ownership certificate and is not evidence of ownership in a proceeding where ownership is disputed. Use registration information as a lead for examination, not as the entire answer. If the seller's name differs from the public record or an underlying transfer, provide the discrepancy to the professional. Do not decide independently that a small spelling difference is harmless or that every difference proves fraud.
Step 3: use official record resources
The FAA's FAA Aircraft Registry: forms and submission resources links aircraft-registration inquiries and record-request services. Begin from the official resources rather than an advertisement or an unsolicited message offering a substitute report. Save the date, aircraft identifiers and the information you obtained so that the professional can see the scope of your preliminary work. Avoid describing an informal lookup as a completed title opinion in communications with the seller or lender.
Some owner information can be subject to the FAA's FAA: withholding public aircraft ownership data process for withholding public ownership data. Do not interpret an absent public name or address as proof that the aircraft has no owner or that the title is clear. Ask the title professional how to obtain and verify the records needed for the actual transaction. The existence of a privacy process does not resolve the separate question of the proposed seller's authority.
Step 4: obtain the records the review requires
The FAA's FAA: requesting aircraft record copies explains requests for its aircraft registration and airworthiness-document repository. It also identifies ancillary documents that are not included in the specified ordinary record-copy formats and provides a request path for them. Ask the professional whether those or other documents are relevant. Obtaining a standard record package should not be described as having obtained every document that could matter to every transaction.
Keep the title file separate from the maintenance-log package, while letting the appointed professionals cross-reference relevant facts. Owner-held logs, shop records and technical findings serve different purposes from the conveyances and security documents being examined. If one file reveals a material identity or history discrepancy, pass it to the responsible reviewer. A complete-looking technical binder does not make a separate title question disappear.
Step 5: agree on scope, date and deliverables
Ask which records, property and jurisdictions the professional will examine, when the search information is current through and whether an update near closing is included. State the buyer's entity, lender and any known seller loan or unusual transaction feature. Ask what the written deliverable contains and whether material supporting documents will be supplied. Also identify work excluded from the initial quote, such as clearance, legal analysis or specialized registry services.
Avoid asking only whether the report will say clean. A useful engagement explains what the provider can establish and what requires additional review. It should also say how a finding changes the next step and who may authorize extra work. Get a current quote and cancellation terms. The cost of obtaining information and the cost of resolving a difficult issue can be different, so do not treat a low initial search fee as a fixed price for every later task.
Step 6: read each finding as a question with evidence
For each item, identify the document reference, date, parties, affected property and the professional's explanation. Ask what the finding means for this proposed transfer and which additional evidence is required. 14 CFR 49.17: conveyances, validity limits and releases states that FAA recording is not a decision that an instrument actually affects title or an interest in the property. A buyer therefore needs interpretation of the actual documents rather than assuming that every recorded line proves the same kind of enforceable claim.
Create a finding-to-action log with the report reference, issue, responsible person, next evidence, due date and current status. Suggested statuses are awaiting information, documents received, professional review pending and resolution accepted. Do not mark an item resolved merely because an attachment arrived. The reviewer should confirm that it addresses the actual issue. Keep the reason for acceptance with the supporting document so that later participants can understand the conclusion.
Step 7: define the response to existing interests
If an existing loan or old unreleased interest appears, have the title and closing professionals establish the payoff or clearance process. Ask which document identifies the interest, what collateral must be released and who can execute the required resolution. A seller's statement that a loan was paid may be true without establishing that the recorded release was completed. Keep the payoff evidence and record-follow-up milestones distinct.
Do not apply a blanket first-to-file rule to every possible aircraft claim. The FAA's clear-title guidance notes state-law questions, and Part 49 separately addresses federal tax-lien recording limits. Ask counsel whether additional searches or legal analysis are needed. This guide does not assess a specific claim's priority. A practical search request should reveal what remains outside scope so the buyer can obtain the appropriate review before closing.
Step 8: check whether another registry workstream is needed
Ask counsel whether the actual aircraft objects and transaction raise International Registry questions. The FAA's FAA: Cape Town Treaty and eligible aircraft objects describes eligible equipment and the U.S. framework. The answer should be based on the specific aircraft, engines and transaction, not a casual assumption that every piston airplane is exempt or every financed aircraft requires identical filings. Give the title professional the information needed to coordinate any additional work that counsel identifies.
This is also the time to flag imports, exports or other unusual ownership circumstances. Ask who is responsible for specialist advice and what deliverable it produces. Do not let the word international hide several separate tasks in a general quote. A complete instruction list should say which search, registration, discharge or other action is needed, by whom and before which dependent closing event.
Step 9: align the findings with the agreement and lender
Have counsel compare the findings and proposed resolutions with the purchase agreement's conditions, deadlines and remedies. AOPA's AOPA Legal Services: get the aircraft agreement in writing explains why the agreement, inspection and title work each matter. The report itself does not automatically create a right to cancel, and a seller's title promise does not replace the review. If more time is needed, use the agreed modification process before treating an informal extension as effective.
Ask the actual lender which evidence it needs and whether the proposed closing provider is acceptable. AOPA's AOPA Aviation Finance: title and escrow work in financing describes title work in aircraft financing, but every institution's current conditions need direct confirmation. Provide a consistent current package to the relevant professionals. An answer accepted by one participant does not necessarily satisfy the other decision owners. Keep their approvals or outstanding conditions separately visible.
Step 10: retain the final evidence and follow-up list
Before authorizing release, confirm that the required resolutions and closing conditions are accepted through the agreed process. Verify payment instructions independently; the FBI's FBI: business-email compromise and payment verification explains why payment requests and changes should be checked outside an apparent email chain. After closing, obtain the final search or update, relevant resolutions, executed documents and agreed submission evidence. Assign responsibility for any remaining agency review or correction.
Use the title-and-lien protection guide for search, contract and insurance distinctions, and the escrow-services guide to compare provider scope. Bring the actual aircraft identity and transaction stage to a financing inquiry. A well-defined request packet and an evidence-based action log make the search more useful than a quick lookup presented as a complete ownership guarantee.