FAA paperwork for an aircraft donation

Transferring an aircraft is not like signing over a car title. The registry is federal, the forms are specific, and a filing that arrives with the wrong signature block comes back weeks later. Giving Center prepares the paperwork and pays the filing and search fees. What follows is what happens on your side of it.

The two forms

Two FAA forms do the work. AC Form 8050-2, the Aircraft Bill of Sale, transfers ownership from you to Giving Center. It must be signed by the registered owner exactly as the name appears on the current registration — if the registry says a trust, an LLC or a person who has since married and changed names, the signature and title lines have to reconcile. AC Form 8050-1, the Aircraft Registration Application, is filed by the new owner. It is a carbon form; the pink copy stays in the aircraft as temporary authority to operate while the application is processed.

Both go to the FAA Civil Aviation Registry in Oklahoma City, with the registration fee. If there was an intermediate owner who never recorded a transfer — common with aircraft that passed through a family — the chain has to be rebuilt with the missing bills of sale before the registry will accept the current one.

The lien search

Before anything is signed, we order a title and lien search against the N-number and the serial number through a title company that works the registry records. It returns every recorded document in the aircraft's history: bills of sale, security agreements, mechanic's liens, FAA-recorded tax liens.

Old liens that were paid but never released are the most common finding, and they are not fatal. The lender signs a release, it gets recorded, and the transfer proceeds. It does take time — sometimes weeks, if the original lender has been acquired twice since. If there is a live lien, it has to be satisfied before the donation completes; there is a page on donating an aircraft with a lien.

What the donor signs

• AC Form 8050-2, the bill of sale, with signature matching the registration.
• A donation agreement stating the aircraft, its condition and which path it is a candidate for.
• Form 8283 Section B, if you will claim above $5,000 — the appraiser signs first, then the charity as recipient.
• A release authorizing us to collect the logbooks and remove the aircraft from its hangar or tie-down.

You keep copies of everything. Giving Center issues a written acknowledgement at transfer and Form 1098-C afterward, either within 30 days of sale or with the intervening-use certification if the aircraft is retained.

Estates and trusts

When the registered owner has died, the registry needs proof of authority: letters testamentary, a small-estate affidavit in some states, or the trust instrument naming the trustee. The executor signs as executor, in that capacity, on the bill of sale. Aircraft frequently outlive the owner's memory of where the logs are — the logbooks turn up in a house, not a hangar, about as often as not. See inherited aircraft.

Deregistration and export

If the aircraft is on a foreign register, the sequence reverses: the foreign authority deregisters it, issues a certificate of deregistration, and only then can it be registered in the United States. An export certificate of airworthiness may be required depending on the country and the aircraft's next use. Ferry planning, permits and customs are ours to arrange. What we need from you is the registration document, the airworthiness certificate, the logs and proof of clear title. See international aircraft donation.

Timeline

Title transfer and delivery are what set the tax year. If you are working toward a December 31, start in the fall. Year-end donations →