Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using TailCheck ("Service"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. TailCheck reserves the right to update these terms at any time. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance.

2. Description of Service

TailCheck provides AI-assisted aircraft records reports compiled from four sets of publicly available federal records held by the FAA, the NTSB and the Federal Register. Reports are generated for informational and research purposes only.

Most of that data is read from our own periodically refreshed copies of federal bulk files rather than queried live at the moment you buy. Each section of a report states the date the record was read and the window it covers.

3. What TailCheck Is, Is Not, and Is For

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.

What TailCheck is.

A records search. For one N-number we read four federal record sets:

• 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.

On top of those we give you the list of questions to put to the seller and to the mechanic, assembled by reading the four records against each other. We tell you what those records say and, by name, which of them we could not read.

A source that could not be read is reported as not checked, never as a zero and never as a clean result. A result of “none found” is reported together with the window it is true over, because a search that begins in 2008 says nothing about a 1978 airframe's first thirty years.

What TailCheck is not.

It is not an inspection, not an airworthiness determination, not a compliance assessment for any Airworthiness Directive, not a record of major repairs or alterations, not a title search or title insurance, not a lien search, not a record of whether or how often the aircraft has flown, and not an appraisal or valuation of any kind. We never see the aircraft, its logbooks, or its maintenance records. Under 14 CFR 91.7 the pilot in command is responsible for determining that the aircraft is in condition for safe flight before every flight. Under 14 CFR 91.403 the owner or operator is responsible for maintaining it in an airworthy condition. Nothing in this report shifts either duty and nothing in it can discharge them. A clean TailCheck report is not permission to fly.

What it is for.

Deciding where to spend your pre-buy inspection money, and what to ask the seller before you spend it. A good records search makes a physical inspection sharper and cheaper. It does not replace one, and this one is not offered as one.

3a. What we do not check, and where to get it

Every report carries this list, and it is the same list for every aircraft, because these are limits of the federal record system rather than limits of what you paid:

• 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.

4. User Accounts

Some features require account creation. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials. You agree to provide accurate information and to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use.

5. Payment & Refunds

Full reports are paid products processed through Stripe. Payments are non-refundable once a report has been generated. If a report fails to generate due to a system error, you may request a refund by contacting support. Subscription plans (Pro, Max) are billed monthly and can be cancelled at any time.

Re-run credit. If a record we said we would search could not be read when your report ran, your report names it and marks that section not checked, and you are entitled to a re-run of that report at no charge once the source is answering again. Request it by replying to your delivery email or contacting support. The credit is our remedy for incomplete source coverage; we do not discount a report because a federal source was down, because a genuinely clean aircraft is not a defective product.

6. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Use the Service for any unlawful purpose
• Resell or redistribute reports without authorization
• Attempt to reverse-engineer, scrape, or misuse the platform
• Exceed API rate limits or abuse automated access
• Misrepresent TailCheck reports as official government documents

7. Data Accuracy

TailCheck aggregates data from public government databases, largely by reading our own periodically refreshed copies of the federal bulk files rather than by querying each agency live at the moment you buy. We cannot guarantee that all data is complete, current, or error-free. Government databases carry delays, omissions and inaccuracies, and an event, a directive or a recorded instrument can exist without yet appearing in the index we search. Each report states the date each record was read and the window it covers; always verify findings through independent sources and qualified professionals.

8. Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, TAILCHECK AND ITS OPERATORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF PROFITS OR REVENUES, WHETHER INCURRED DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE. OUR TOTAL LIABILITY SHALL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT PAID BY YOU FOR THE SPECIFIC REPORT IN QUESTION.

9. Intellectual Property

The TailCheck name, logo, and proprietary report format are protected. Government data used in reports is public domain. AI-generated analysis and risk scoring methodologies are proprietary to TailCheck.

10. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to conflict of law principles.

11. Contact

For questions about these Terms, please contact us at legal@tailcheckai.com.