Selling an aircraft is a documents-and-filings exercise as much as a commercial one. To sell an aircraft in the United States, you price it against current market data, put the maintenance records and title in order, sign a purchase and sale agreement with the buyer, execute FAA Form 8050-2 (the Aircraft Bill of Sale), and file the transfer with the FAA Civil Aviation Registry in Oklahoma City along with a $5 fee. The paper registration certificate goes back to the FAA within 21 days of the transfer.1eCFR. 14 CFR 47.41 – Duration and Return of Certificate Everything else — inspections, escrow, taxes, insurance — either protects that transfer or catches issues before they cost you money.
Price It Against Real Market Data
Aircraft values turn on total airframe and engine time, avionics, damage history, paint and interior condition, and how complete the maintenance logbooks are. The most widely used pricing tool is VREF, which publishes quarterly valuation guides and online appraisal reports based on installed equipment, modifications, and logbook review. For higher-value sales or legal disputes, a USPAP-compliant appraisal from an accredited appraiser gives you a defensible number.
Incomplete logbooks drag down value more than almost any mechanical issue. A leaky fuel selector can be fixed; twenty years of missing entries cannot be recreated. If your logs have gaps, address them before you list rather than trying to negotiate around them later. Buyers and their mechanics will compare your asking price against published values, and pricing without checking the market invites lowball offers or months of sitting unsold.
Get the Records and Airworthiness Paperwork in Order
Federal regulations require aircraft owners to keep detailed records for the airframe, each engine, and each propeller, covering every inspection, repair, and alteration, with the date of the work and the signature and certificate number of the mechanic who approved return to service.2eCFR. 14 CFR 91.417 – Maintenance Records The logs should also show total time in service, the status of any life-limited parts, time since overhaul on components that require it, and the current inspection status of the aircraft.
Every aircraft must carry a valid Airworthiness Certificate (FAA Form 8100-2), which confirms the aircraft meets its type design and is in condition for safe flight.3Federal Aviation Administration. Standard Airworthiness Certificates You also need to hand over a current equipment list and current weight and balance data, since both affect how the aircraft can legally be operated.
Prepare a compliance list for every applicable Airworthiness Directive. ADs are mandatory safety corrections issued by the FAA for specific models, engines, or components, and the owner is responsible for maintaining compliance.4Federal Aviation Administration. Airworthiness Directives – Applicability and Compliance A clean AD list tells a buyer there are no outstanding mandatory fixes and moves the sale forward.
If Logbooks Are Missing
Lost or incomplete logbooks are one of the most common problems. For airframe and engine logs, reconstruct what you can from maintenance shop records, invoices, and FAA Form 337s filed for major repairs or alterations. The FAA keeps 337s on file and will send copies. Previous owners, mechanics, and repair stations may still have work orders.
A reconstructed logbook should say plainly that it is a reconstruction, list the sources used, and include the supporting documents you were able to find. Disclose the gaps. An aircraft with honestly documented log gaps and a recent thorough inspection will sell. One where the seller glosses over missing records won’t.
Expect a Pre-Purchase Inspection
Nearly every serious buyer will hire an independent mechanic to perform a pre-purchase inspection before closing. Knowing what that mechanic will look at lets you get ahead of problems.
- Records review: Logbooks checked for AD compliance, overdue service bulletins, damage or repair history, and whether the flight manual matches the current configuration.
- Airframe: Visual and hands-on inspection of fuselage, wings, control surfaces, and landing gear for corrosion, skin damage, worn components, and leaks.
- Engine: Leak checks, foreign-object-debris inspection, power assurance run, and often a borescope of cylinders or the compressor section.
- Avionics and electrical: Functional checks of radios, navigation equipment, displays, the ELT, and the battery.
- Interior: Seat condition and function, placards, and corrosion-prone areas.
Many sellers have their own mechanic look the aircraft over first. Finding and fixing issues before the buyer’s inspector arrives gives you leverage in negotiations and avoids the dynamic where a long squawk list drives the price down.
Clear the Title and Use Escrow
Before money moves, the buyer will search the FAA’s records to confirm you own the aircraft free and clear. The FAA Aircraft Registration Branch doesn’t perform title searches, but several private firms search the FAA’s recorded documents for liens, security agreements, and other encumbrances.5Federal Aviation Administration. Clear Title A clear title means no unreleased mortgages, security agreements, tax liens, or mechanic’s liens on record.
If a lien turns up, get it released before closing. The common method is having the lienholder sign FAA Form 8050-41 below its release statement and return it to the Aircraft Registration Branch. The FAA will also accept a separate release document identifying the specific lien and containing a statement releasing all rights and interest, signed in ink by the secured party.5Federal Aviation Administration. Clear Title If you paid off a loan years ago and never filed the release, start on this early. Releases can take weeks, and no buyer will close with an unreleased lien on record.
An escrow service protects both sides. The escrow agent holds the buyer’s funds and the signed transfer documents until every condition is met: clean title, inspection complete, liens released. Aviation escrow services typically charge between $500 and $1,500 depending on complexity, and it’s worth the fee on any sale above a few tens of thousands of dollars.
Write a Purchase and Sale Agreement
The FAA bill of sale transfers title but says nothing about commercial terms. A separate purchase and sale agreement covers price, payment method, deposit terms, inspection contingency, and what happens if either party walks.
Most sellers include “as-is, where-is” language to limit later claims about mechanical condition. Buyers often push back with inspection contingencies that let them exit or renegotiate if the pre-purchase inspection finds problems. The main negotiation point is whether inspection findings can reopen price or only give the buyer a yes-or-no exit. Both approaches are common; whichever you agree to, spell it out.
Three things trip sellers up here:
- Non-refundable deposits: A buyer who puts down earnest money will want it refundable if the inspection fails. A contract that keeps the deposit but also restricts renegotiation on inspection findings will meet resistance.
- Delivery conditions: Specify where and when the aircraft will be delivered, who pays for the ferry flight, and what condition the aircraft has to be in at delivery (full fuel, fresh annual, or as inspected).
- Risk of loss: Define who bears the risk if the aircraft is damaged between contract signing and closing, particularly if financing pushes closing out by weeks.
Sign the FAA Bill of Sale Correctly
FAA Form 8050-2 is the document that transfers ownership. It’s one page, but every field must match the FAA’s existing records exactly: N-number, manufacturer name, model designation, and serial number as they appear on the current registration.6Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Bill of Sale AC Form 8050-2 Small discrepancies can cause rejection.
The seller’s name and address must appear exactly as shown on the current registration certificate. A corporate owner signs through an authorized officer who prints their title. An estate sale is signed by the executor with documentation of legal authority. Joint owners each sign, unless one holds a power of attorney for the others. The form is available as a PDF from the FAA’s website or in person at any Flight Standards District Office.7Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Bill of Sale Check every entry against the current registration before signing. Rejection means resubmitting and waiting through the processing queue again.
File with the FAA Aircraft Registration Branch
Transfer documents go to the FAA Civil Aviation Registry in Oklahoma City. You can submit by mail, commercial delivery, or email:
- U.S. Postal Service: FAA Aircraft Registration Branch, P.O. Box 25504, Oklahoma City, OK 73125-0504
- Commercial delivery: FAA Aircraft Registration Branch, Registry Building Room 118, 6425 South Denning, Oklahoma City, OK 73169-69378Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration Branch
- Email: Documents with digital signatures can be emailed to the Aircraft Registration Branch. Anything requiring a filing fee still has to be mailed with payment, since fees cannot be paid online for emailed submissions.9Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration – Digital Document
Each registration filing carries a $5 fee payable to the Federal Aviation Administration by check or money order.10Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration – Registering Your Aircraft
Return the Registration Certificate Within 21 Days
Once the sale closes, you return the paper Certificate of Aircraft Registration to the FAA with the reverse side filled out, or notify the FAA by email if the certificate was issued electronically. Do this within 21 days of the ownership transfer.1eCFR. 14 CFR 47.41 – Duration and Return of Certificate If you can’t find the certificate, submit a written statement describing the aircraft and explaining why it isn’t available, within the same 21 days.
The Buyer’s Temporary Operating Authority
After the buyer submits the registration application, they carry the second copy of FAA Form 8050-1 in the aircraft as temporary authority to operate without a registration certificate. It’s valid for flights within the United States until the new certificate arrives or the FAA denies the application.11eCFR. 14 CFR 47.31 – Application If 12 months pass from the date the FAA received the first post-sale registration application and the certificate hasn’t issued, the temporary authority expires.
Processing Times
The registry has a persistent backlog. As of early 2026, the branch was processing documents received roughly three to four months earlier.12Federal Aviation Administration. Aircraft Registration The buyer’s temporary authority covers the gap, but your name stays on the FAA’s records until the new registration is processed. Close through escrow and keep a copy of every signed document, so you have proof the aircraft was transferred while the paperwork sits in the queue.
Taxes on the Sale
How the sale is taxed depends almost entirely on how you used the aircraft.
Personal-Use Aircraft
An aircraft owned and flown for personal purposes is a capital asset. Sell it for more than your adjusted basis (what you paid plus capital improvements) and the profit is a taxable capital gain.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1001 – Determination of Amount of and Recognition of Gain or Loss Most personal aircraft depreciate rather than appreciate, so gains are uncommon outside vintage or warbird sales. Sell at a loss and you cannot deduct it. Federal tax law limits individual loss deductions to business losses, investment losses, and certain casualty or theft losses from federally declared disasters.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 165 – Losses A personal aircraft sold at a loss doesn’t fit any of those categories, and the IRS is direct about it: losses from selling personal-use property like a car or aircraft are not deductible.15Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 409 – Capital Gains and Losses
Business-Use Aircraft
If you claimed depreciation on the aircraft as a business asset, selling it triggers depreciation recapture. The portion of your gain attributable to prior depreciation is taxed as ordinary income rather than at the capital gains rate. You report the sale on IRS Form 4797 (Sales of Business Property), using Part III to calculate the ordinary income recapture; any gain above the recapture amount is reported as a capital gain on Form 8949 and Schedule D.16Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 4797 Recapture applies whether or not you actually took the deductions. If you were entitled to take depreciation and didn’t, the IRS treats you as if you did.
State Sales and Use Tax
Most states impose sales or use tax on aircraft purchases, and the obligation usually falls on the buyer. It isn’t your direct liability as seller, but it shapes the transaction. Some states offer fly-away exemptions if the buyer removes the aircraft from the state within a set period, ranging from as few as 10 days to as long as 12 months depending on the state. Buyers may ask you to deliver at a specific location or close in a particular state for tax reasons. Knowing why makes the negotiation easier.
Don’t Leave an Insurance Gap
Aircraft insurance doesn’t transfer with the aircraft. Your policy covers the named insured, and coverage ends when ownership changes. The buyer needs a policy bound before they fly the aircraft away. If the plan is for the buyer to fly it home on closing day, their insurance must be in place before the bill of sale is signed. Put this on the closing checklist.
If there’s a gap between signing and delivery — a ferry pilot to arrange, weather to wait out — spell out in the purchase agreement who insures the aircraft during that window. An uninsured aircraft sitting in a hangar is one hailstorm away from an expensive dispute.
Cape Town Treaty: Only for Larger Aircraft
If the aircraft meets certain size thresholds, the Cape Town Treaty adds an International Registry filing on top of the FAA one. The thresholds are:
- Fixed-wing airframes: Type certificated to carry at least 8 persons including crew, or goods exceeding 2,750 kg (6,050 lbs)
- Helicopters: Type certificated to carry at least 5 persons including crew, or goods exceeding 450 kg (990 lbs)
- Engines: Jet engines with at least 1,750 lbs of thrust, or turbine/piston engines with at least 550 rated takeoff horsepower17Federal Aviation Administration. The Cape Town Treaty
Sellers of qualifying aircraft file FAA Form 8050-135 to get an authorization code for transmitting sale or discharge information to the International Registry.18Federal Aviation Administration. FAA Entry Point Filing Form for the International Registry The form requires the identity of at least one party, a complete description of the aircraft (make, model, serial number, registration number), and the type of interest being recorded. Users also register with the International Registry directly, which carries an annual setup fee of $240.19International Registry. Registry Fees Light single-engine aircraft below these thresholds skip this step entirely.
Whether to Use a Broker
Many sellers hire an aircraft broker to handle marketing, buyer screening, negotiations, and paperwork coordination. Commissions typically run between 1% and 10% of the sale price, with the percentage generally decreasing as aircraft value increases. A broker on a $5 million turboprop might charge 2% to 3%; a broker on a $60,000 Cessna 150 might charge toward the higher end of the range or a flat fee.
Whether the fee is worth it depends on how quickly you need to sell, how comfortable you are negotiating directly with buyers, and whether you have time for showings and inspections. Owners who fly regularly and know their aircraft’s market well can save thousands by selling privately through online listings. Owners selling a type they don’t know — an inherited aircraft, a partnership dissolution — often get the commission back in a correct listing price and faster access to qualified buyers.