Aircraft intelligence reports
Know what you’re buying before you fly to look at it.
Walkaround turns a tail number into a comprehensive intelligence report on any used piston aircraft for sale in the US or Canada. Records, ADs, accident history, and type-specific risks — synthesized into the conversation you should be having with the seller and your prebuy mechanic.
Free during beta — limited slots. Built by an aviation enthusiast in Saskatoon. Not affiliated with any dealer, broker, or escrow service.
Section 01 — The report
What’s actually in a Walkaround report.
Concrete sections, sourced from public records and curated type knowledge. No marketing abstractions. Below is the table of contents alongside a real excerpt from the sample report on a 1978 Cessna 172N.
Registration history and anomalies
Full ownership chain from FAA / Transport Canada with flags for short tenures, gaps, and trust ownership.
Accident and incident records
NTSB and TSB Canada searched by N-number and serial, with risk framing for prop strikes and major repairs.
AD compliance review with cost ranges
Every applicable Airworthiness Directive, with a cheap / medium / expensive cost bucket and what to verify in logbooks.
Type-specific risk profile
Hand-curated knowledge a seasoned owner of this exact type would tell a friend at a fly-in.
Total cost of ownership in your region
Range-based annualized costs (insurance, hangar, annual, fuel, reserves) for where you actually fly.
Specific questions for the seller
Five questions tied to the actual findings on this airframe — not generic checklist items.
Specific items to brief your prebuy mechanic
A focused list of inspection priorities your A&P / AME should hit, driven by what the records actually say.
Stable ownership pattern. Four owners over 47 years, average tenure of approximately 12 years. No registration gaps. No deregistration events. Current owner has held the aircraft for 13 years — a long, stable tenure that typically correlates with consistent maintenance practices, though this is a hypothesis to verify in logbooks.
Geographic moves (KS → TX → LA → AL) span humid Gulf-Coast environments for the past 30 years; corrosion inspection is a priority during prebuy regardless of hangar history claims.
● No anomaly flags.
Excerpt — Engine-specific risk
The O-320-H2AD engine in the 172N has a well-documented history of cam lobe and lifter wear in early production units. Engines updated to the larger tappet / wider cam-lobe configuration are significantly more reliable. Verify in the engine logbook which configuration this engine has.
● Yellow flag: H2AD engine configuration to confirm via logbook.
Section 02 — See it for yourself
Read a complete sample report.
1978 Cessna 172N Skyhawk — the full report we’d send a buyer. No email, no signup.
Section 03 — What makes Walkaround different
Built for the aviation buyer, not the generic record-lookup market.
US and Canada from day one.
Trade-A-Plane and Controller listings cross the border constantly; Walkaround does too. FAA + Transport Canada registries, NTSB + TSB accident data, both ADs.
Type-specific depth, not generic synthesis.
Walkaround knows what an O-320-H2AD configuration question looks like, why a Cirrus CAPS repack date matters, and what a Bonanza V-tail flutter SB compliance actually requires.
Buyer-fit analysis, not just aircraft analysis.
Optionally tell us your hours, mission, and home region — and the report addresses fit, insurance availability, regional cost, and budget realism for you.
Built by someone who’s actually in the community.
Not a generic tool that handles aviation as one of fifty domains. Curation, type knowledge, and editorial judgment are done by a human who reads Trade-A-Plane for fun.
Section 04 — Pricing
Free during beta.
We’re working with the first 10 buyers and brokers personally. Send us a tail number and a few words about what you’re looking at; we’ll get back to you with a full report and an open conversation. Pricing arrives later, after the reports are consistently worth paying for.
Section 05 — About
Why I built this.
I’m a software engineer in Saskatoon with a long-running fascination with general aviation. The tools available to used aircraft buyers haven’t really changed in 20 years, while the cost of a wrong purchase has only gone up.
Walkaround is the tool I wished existed when reading every Trade-A-Plane and Controller listing late at night — one place that pulls the records, surfaces the type-specific risks, and tells me what to actually ask the seller.
— Luis Camara
Section 06 — FAQ
Common questions.
- Is this a substitute for a physical prebuy inspection?
- No. Walkaround is a triage and intelligence tool. Every aircraft worth buying still gets a physical pre-purchase inspection from a qualified A&P / AME. The point of the report is to decide which aircraft to invest the prebuy budget on, and to brief the mechanic on exactly where to look.
- What aircraft types do you support?
- Piston singles to start: Cessna 172 / 182, Piper PA-28 family (Cherokee / Warrior / Archer), Beechcraft Bonanza, Cirrus SR20 / SR22. Type coverage expands as we add curated knowledge for each model — we’d rather support five types deeply than fifty types shallowly.
- What does a report cost?
- Free during beta. Paid pricing will be in the low hundreds of dollars per report.
- How do you handle Canadian-registered aircraft?
- Direct, native support — not an afterthought. Transport Canada CCARCS for registration, TSB Canada for accident data, both FAA and Transport Canada ADs. Cross-border purchases (importing a US-registered aircraft to Canada or vice versa) include a section on import overhead and likely costs.
- Are you affiliated with any broker, escrow company, or dealer?
- No, deliberately. The report should give you the information that helps you, not information that helps a transaction close.
- How current is your data?
- Registry data is refreshed weekly. AD data is current to the latest Federal Register publication. Accident data is current to NTSB / TSB publication. Every factual claim in the report cites its source so you can verify directly.
- Do you use AI?
- Yes. Walkaround uses large language models to synthesize records data and reference knowledge into a coherent report. The type-specific knowledge, AD cost estimates, and editorial judgment are curated by a human. The model writes the report; the human decides what the report should say.