Why TailCheck
One report instead of a day of federal database searches.
Four federal records, each with the date of the file we read. AI cross-referencing. Source-cited risk profiles, typically in a few minutes — plus the page naming what we did not check and what it costs to go and get it.
We search every source on this list for your tail, and stamp each one with the date of the file we read. Federal sources are sometimes unreachable — when one is, your report names it and marks that section Not checked. We never report an unreachable source as clean.
What makes TailCheck different
Other tools give you raw data from one or two databases, one field at a time. TailCheck reads four federal records against each other, dates every file it read, and delivers a risk profile you can share with your client — one that distinguishes “we found nothing” from “we could not look”, and that says on its own page what it did not check.
Four Federal Records
FAA registration and the owner of record, NTSB accidents matched to the airframe by serial number, the airworthiness directives whose applicability statement names the make and model, and the chain of registered owners — searched in parallel, each stamped with the date of the file we read.
AI Cross-Referencing
Claude reads the four records against each other — an accident against the ownership chain, a recurring directive against the year the registration last changed hands — and turns the contradictions into questions for the seller and the mechanic.
Minutes, Not Hours
Research that takes hours by hand comes back as a single report, typically in a few minutes. Screen multiple aircraft back-to-back before your client finishes reviewing listing photos.
Source-Cited Reports
Every finding carries the record it came from — NTSB event IDs, AD numbers, FAA registration file dates — and every clean result states the window it is true over. A record we could not read is named, not scored as clean.
What We Did Not Check
One page in every report: repair and alteration paperwork, whether a directive was actually complied with, liens and title, and what the aircraft is worth. What each one costs, who sells it, and the fact that we take nothing from those referrals.
White-Label Branding
Send your clients professional branded PDFs with your logo and colors. Available on Pro and Max plans — your brand, our data.
Broker Dashboard
Pro Dashboard with report history, client management, batch N-number uploads, API access, and usage analytics. Built specifically for brokers and A&P shops.
The problem with existing options
DIY Research
Hours per aircraft
Manually searching the FAA registry, the NTSB database and the Federal Register, one field at a time. Covers the same raw records but takes hours and requires expertise to read them against each other.
Title Search Agencies
Days, and priced per search
A TailCheck report is not a title search and never will be. These agencies search title and liens, issue the title opinion we do not, and a full records pull from one of them will bring you the repair and alteration paperwork no machine-readable federal source holds. They typically do not cover NTSB accidents, airworthiness directives, or the cross-referencing. Order one before closing — we say so in every report, and we take nothing for saying it.
Free Lookup Tools
Limited data, no analysis
Basic registration lookups and partial accident data. No consolidated report, no cross-referencing, no directive list your mechanic can work from, no broker features, and no professional deliverable for your client.
Our Edge
Know what the federal record says before you book the pre-buy.
A records search cannot find a problem that never reached a federal index, and it cannot inspect an aircraft. What it can do is tell you where to point the inspection, say plainly which records it was unable to read, and name what it never looked at in the first place.
What We Did Not Check
Repair and alteration paperwork, whether a directive was actually complied with, liens and title, what the aircraft is worth. Every report names all four, says why no records search can answer them, and prints what it costs to go and get each one. We take nothing from those referrals.
Cross-Record Contradictions
An NTSB accident against an ownership change recorded three weeks later, or a recurring directive against an airframe whose FAA records begin after it was built, is surfaced as a question to ask the seller rather than buried in a table. A contradiction is only raised when both records actually answered.
Actionable Checklist
Every report includes a prioritized pre-buy action checklist — exactly what to verify, what to ask the seller, and what your A&P/IA should inspect and sign off in the logbooks. No generic advice.
Side by side
| Feature | TailCheck | Windsockcompetitor | Aerospace Reportscompetitor | DIY Researchalternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $39/report | Free (AOPA members) | $95/search | Free (your time) |
| Time to complete | Minutes | Instant | 1–3 days | 4–8 hours |
| FAA Registration | Searched | |||
| NTSB Accident History | Searched | |||
| Airworthiness Directives (which apply) | Searched | |||
| Ownership History | Searched | Partial | ||
| Questions for seller & mechanic | ||||
| AI cross-referencing | ||||
| PDF Report | ||||
| Repair & alteration paperwork (337s) | We do not sell this | By mail | ||
| AD compliance status | Logbooks only | Logbooks only | Logbooks only | Logbooks only |
| Lien & Title Search | We do not sell this | Partial | ||
| Aircraft valuation | We do not sell this | Partial | ||
| White-Label Branding | Broker seat | |||
| API Access | Broker seat | |||
| Broker Dashboard | Broker seat |
Searched on every report. If a source does not respond, your report says so by name — an unreachable source is never reported as clean.
Where to get the rows we do not sell. The FAA Aircraft Registration Branch will send the complete record for a tail on CD for about $10. Aero-Space Reports will send the complete record including the repair and alteration paperwork for about $45, usually within a couple of days. The logbooks, read by your A&P/IA at the pre-buy inspection. Take our applicability list with you — it is the checklist that reading is done against. A real title search from an FAA-records title agency in Oklahoma City runs about $85 and takes a day or two. Order one before closing, every time. A certified appraiser, when a certified value is required. For a working figure, the published aircraft price digests and current asking prices for the type.
We receive no commission, referral fee or other consideration from the FAA, from any records agency, title agency or appraiser, or from anyone else named above. We point you at them because that is where the rest of the record actually is.
What we checked, and what we did not
Every report carries this page. It is the same list for every tail, because the limits are limits of the federal record system, not of how much you paid.
What we searched
Aircraft Registry
Currently registered and recently deregistered U.S. civil aircraft. It is a snapshot of the register as it stands, not a history of it. Read from our copy of the FAA bulk registration file, refreshed weekly by a scheduled job. A registration is dated with the newest FAA action in the file it was read from while that file is the one loaded, and otherwise with the date it was read — never with a build date. When a tail is missing from the snapshot we fall back to a cached live lookup, then to a live lookup.
Accident & Incident Database
Our copy of the NTSB event data begins 2008-01-01 and runs to its most recent refresh, matched to the airframe by serial number. Anything before 2008 is not in the records we search — on a 1978 airframe that is most of its life — and a report says so beside every clean result. Read from our copy of the NTSB bulk event data, refreshed on a schedule; the CAROL query service is a fallback when the bulk copy has no row for the tail.
Airworthiness Directives
Part 39 rules published in the Federal Register from 1994 onward, matched to this make and model. Directives issued before 1994 are not in what we search. Whether any directive was complied with on this airframe is not in what we search either, and cannot be: 14 CFR 91.417 keeps compliance status in the aircraft's paper maintenance records. Federal Register API results, cached per make/model/engine. Directives are re-fetched when the cache entry expires, not on every report.
Ownership History
The current registrant from the FAA's registration file, plus any deregistration record the FAA holds for this serial number under an earlier N-number. A change of registered owner under the same N-number leaves no deregistration record, so the files cannot list the owners before the current one. Where the FAA's records for an airframe begin later than the year it was built, the report says so and names the date the records start — it does not call a one-owner chain a one-owner aircraft. Read from our copy of the FAA registration and deregistration files, refreshed on a schedule.
What we did not, and where to get it
Form 337 major repairs and alterations
We do not report major repair or alteration paperwork, and we do not print a count of it. No machine-readable federal source exists. The FAA bulk document distribution carries seven document types — bills of sale, security agreements, releases, and four registration forms — and Form 337 is not among them. Every route to a 337 ends at a human pulling paper.
The FAA Aircraft Registration Branch will send the complete record for a tail on CD for about $10. Aero-Space Reports will send the complete record including the repair and alteration paperwork for about $45, usually within a couple of days.
Whether an airworthiness directive was complied with
We tell you which directives name this make and model. We never tell you, or imply, that one of them was or was not done on this aircraft. 14 CFR 91.417 places compliance status in the aircraft's paper maintenance records, which stay with the aircraft and transfer at closing. There is no database of it anywhere, for anyone.
The logbooks, read by your A&P/IA at the pre-buy inspection. Take our applicability list with you — it is the checklist that reading is done against.
Service difficulty reports about this airframe
We do not carry a service difficulty section, and we will not print 'none on file' for one. The duty to file falls on certificate holders and repair stations, never on a private owner (14 CFR 91.1415, 121.703, 135.415, 145.221). Only 616 of 185,754 single-engine piston registrations have any SDR at all — 0.33%. 'None on file' therefore describes who operated the aircraft, not its condition, and printed beside an accident record it reads as a clean bill of health.
The FAA's own SDR system is public and free. Search it by make and model to read what has been reported against the type — which is a genuinely useful thing to know, and the only thing the data supports.
Flight activity and whether an aircraft has been sitting
We do not report flights, hours flown, home base, or dormancy. ADS-B reception is a volunteer receiver network with uneven and class-biased coverage, aircraft never certificated with an engine-driven electrical system are exempt from carrying ADS-B Out under 14 CFR 91.225(e), and 40% of valid fixed-wing singles appear zero times across 2.7 years of data. We cannot tell a parked aircraft from one flying out of an airport nobody listens to, so we say nothing.
Ask the seller for the tach and Hobbs readings and the date of the last annual, then check them against the logbooks. That is the record that actually settles it.
Liens, encumbrances and title
We make no statement that title is clear and no statement that an aircraft is free of liens. The FAA document index is a recordation index, never a title search (14 CFR 49.17). Federal tax liens, possessory mechanic's liens and sub-threshold engine liens are structurally invisible in it. When we checked 350 tails our own code had called clear, 305 were a loan filed the same day as a release — the ordinary pattern of a sale plus a new mortgage. We would have been printing 'clear' over a live loan.
A real title search from an FAA-records title agency in Oklahoma City runs about $85 and takes a day or two. Order one before closing, every time.
What the aircraft is worth
We publish no value, no value range, and no comparison to asking prices. This one is permanent. A number printed beside federal records is read as a finding derived from them. Ours would not be, and no dataset we can reach would make it one.
A certified appraiser, when a certified value is required. For a working figure, the published aircraft price digests and current asking prices for the type.
We receive no commission, referral fee or other consideration from the FAA, from any records agency, title agency or appraiser, or from anyone else named above. We point you at them because that is where the rest of the record actually is.
See for yourself.
Free lookup included. Full report $39.
TailCheck reads public records. It does not inspect aircraft and cannot determine airworthiness — use it to decide what to inspect, never as the sole basis for buying or flying.