Is your file ready to sell?
Records are the single largest controllable variable in an aircraft sale — larger than paint, larger than hours, and entirely within your control before anyone sees the aircraft. Here are the sixteen things a buyer's inspector will ask for, and a free score for where your file actually stands.
Who discovers the problem changes what it costs
Every aircraft has something in its history. The variable that actually moves money is not whether a gap exists — it is who finds it, and when. A gap you find in month one is a discovery: you can reconstruct the period from the maintenance provider's records, or write a dated explanation, and go to market with it disclosed and priced.
The same gap found by the buyer's inspector in month five is a negotiation. Your aircraft is disassembled at their facility, they now know more about it than you do, and the finding is being characterised by someone with an interest in characterising it unfavourably. It is also no longer just a paperwork problem — an undisclosed gap makes a buyer re-read everything else in your file, because the question has changed from "what is missing" to "what else is missing".
That asymmetry is why preparation returns more than almost anything else a seller can do. Work the list below before you market the aircraft, not while it is being inspected.
Sixteen things to have in hand
Assemble, scan and index all of it before a buyer asks. The file should be able to go to an inspection facility the day it is requested.
The records
The maintenance file. This is where the largest, most controllable swings in a sale live.
- Airframe, engine and propeller logbooks — continuous, with no unexplained gaps
- Airworthiness directive compliance list, with current status for each
- Service bulletin status, including which optional bulletins were complied with
- Maintenance tracking export and a next-due summary
- Damage and major-repair history, with the approving paperwork behind it
The aircraft
The configuration as it sits today, and where it is in its maintenance cycle.
- Current weight and balance, reflecting the aircraft as it sits
- Equipment list that matches the aircraft as configured today
- STCs and modifications, with their approvals
- Engine and APU programme enrolment status, and time remaining
- Time since overhaul or hot section, by position
- Paint and interior year recorded, with known cosmetic squawks listed
The ownership
Whether you can actually deliver clean title on the day, and how long that takes.
- Registration certificate and the title chain behind it
- Liens, loans or security interests identified, with a payoff and release path
- Corporate, trust or partnership documents authorising the sale
- Insurance certificate and current hull value
- Import, export and tax history where the aircraft has crossed borders
Score your own file
Answer for your aircraft and get a readiness score, a breakdown by area, and your gaps ordered by how much each one moves a sale — with the specific next action for each. Nothing you enter is published, listed or shared.
Score your records — See where your file stands, which gaps move your number most, and what to do about each. Free with an account; we don't publish or list anything you enter.
Aircraft records: FAQs
What records do I need to sell an aircraft?
Airframe, engine and propeller logbooks with no unexplained gaps; an airworthiness directive compliance list with current status; service bulletin status; the maintenance tracking export and next-due summary; current weight and balance; the equipment list; STC and modification approvals; damage and major-repair history with the paperwork behind it; engine and APU programme status with time remaining; and on the ownership side the registration certificate, title chain, any liens with a payoff path, entity documents authorising the sale, insurance certificate, and import/export and tax history where the aircraft has crossed borders.
How much does a logbook gap reduce an aircraft's value?
There is no universal figure, and anyone quoting one without seeing the aircraft is guessing — it depends on the length of the gap, what period it covers, the aircraft's value and whether the missing history can be reconstructed from other sources. What is consistent is the direction and the mechanism: a gap the buyer's inspector discovers is priced as risk rather than as a paperwork problem, and it surfaces when you have least room to negotiate. The same gap disclosed upfront with an explanation is priced once, as a known quantity.
Can you sell an aircraft with incomplete logbooks?
Yes, aircraft with records gaps sell regularly — but they sell to a smaller pool of buyers, at a discount, and usually after longer on the market. The practical response is to reconstruct what you can from the maintenance provider's own records, the tracking system or the shops that held the aircraft, and then to document plainly what could not be reconstructed and why. A clear, dated explanation in the file is worth considerably more than silence.
Should I get my records reviewed before listing?
Yes, and it is the highest-return preparation you can do. Everything you find yourself is something you can correct on your own schedule at your own shop's rates, or disclose upfront and price in. Everything you do not find is discovered by the buyer's inspector at their facility, with your aircraft already disassembled and a renegotiation attached. The order in which a problem is discovered changes what it costs you.
What is an AD compliance list and why does it matter so much?
It is a record of every airworthiness directive applicable to the aircraft, engines and components, showing how each was complied with and when the recurring ones are next due. It matters disproportionately because an open or unclear AD is a hard objection rather than a soft one — it does not discount the aircraft, it stops the sale — and because ambiguity there makes a buyer read every other document in your file more suspiciously.
Gaps you can't close on your own?
Reconstructing a records period, chasing an AD status list or untangling a title chain is work we do routinely. Tell us where the file stands — no tail number, no agreement.