Get your cash offer — 2 quick steps, no obligation
We're a direct cash buyer for single-engine piston airplanes. Not a broker, not a listing service, not a salvage yard. You tell us what you've got, we come back with a real number, and if you take it we come to your ramp and pay for it.
Cash4Planes is veteran-owned and family-operated, based in Sanford, Florida, and we buy across the country — why a buyer near you matters less than you'd think. When you call, you get someone who flies and who has bought airplanes in the condition yours is in. There's no CAPTCHA between you and a number, no twelve-page intake form to fill in before anyone talks to you, and nobody is going to try to talk you into a listing agreement.
We buy with our own funds. That's the part that matters when you've had a sale collapse before: there's no bank deciding whether the deal happens, no pre-buy inspection contingency to renegotiate against you, and no buyer who disappears when their financing falls apart in week six.
Almost nobody sells an airplane because everything is perfect. Here's what actually comes through the door, and what each one means for your offer.
This is the most common one, and it's fine. You don't need to put the airplane back in annual before selling it. An annual on an airplane you're about to sell is money you almost never get back — the buyer discounts for the squawks anyway, and now you've paid for the privilege of finding them. Send it as it sits. More on what your options are when the annual lapses.
Missing logs hurt the number. They don't stop the sale. A retail buyer will usually walk away entirely — that's the real cost of missing logs, not the dollar figure. We pull what we can from FAA records, price the gap honestly, and tell you what we're assuming. What missing logbooks actually do to an airplane's value.
Send us the tail number. That's genuinely all we need to start. We'll pull the registration and airworthiness records, tell you what the airplane is, roughly what shape it's likely in, and what it's worth. You don't need to find the logbooks, know the engine time, or understand what's in the panel. This comes up more than you'd think, and it's usually at a bad time. A walkthrough for inherited airplanes, and one written for spouses handling an estate.
A long sit is a known quantity, not a mystery. Corrosion, cylinders, hoses, tires, brake discs, dead instruments, a fuel system full of varnish — we know roughly what the bill looks like because we've paid it repeatedly. It comes out of the number and the deal still happens. You do not need to fly it first, and please don't try. What we actually find inside a Cessna that's sat five years.
Not a dealbreaker, just a price factor. Overhauling an engine on an airplane you intend to sell is one of the worst returns in aviation — you'll spend thirty-plus thousand to add considerably less than that to the sale price. In nearly every case we'd rather buy it run-out than have you spend that money first. Overhaul or sell as-is? The math.
Gear-up landings, prop strikes, hail, hangar rash, damage history on an otherwise sound airframe, and airplanes where the insurance didn't cover the repair. All buyable. The only thing that actually kills these deals is finding damage on pickup that nobody mentioned — tell us what happened up front and send photos, and it stays a deal. Selling a damaged airplane as-is.
Storage is the quiet killer. An airplane you're not flying costs the same as one you are — hangar, insurance, annual, database subscriptions — and the longer it sits the more the return-to-service bill grows. If you've already decided you're done, waiting rarely improves the outcome.
The restoration that was going to take a winter and is now in year four. Half-finished panels, an engine on a stand, parts in three different places. We buy these. Be straightforward about what's actually apart and where the pieces are.
Lost medical, partnership dissolution, a move, or just being done with it. No explanation required, but these come with their own wrinkles — selling after losing your medical and unwinding an aircraft partnership each have their own guide.
If you're calling around for cash offers, you'll get numbers from two very different types of business, and it's worth knowing which one you're talking to.
Salvage yards buy airplanes to take them apart. They disassemble the airframe, shelve the parts, and sell them off over years. For a genuinely wrecked airplane — one where getting it airworthy costs more than it will ever be worth — that's the correct answer, and a salvage yard will often be your best number. Nothing wrong with it.
We buy airplanes to put them back in the air. Most of what we purchase gets returned to service and flown again. That's the business.
The difference shows up in the offer. A parts buyer values your airplane as a pile of components minus the labor to strip it. That math doesn't care that the airframe is straight, that it was hangared, or that it only needs an annual and a battery. If your airplane can realistically fly again, a parts-based number will systematically under-value it — not because anyone's being dishonest, but because parting it out is genuinely what it's worth to them.
So: if your airplane is truly beyond economical repair, call a salvage yard, and we'll tell you so ourselves. If it's tired but repairable — the out-of-annual Skylane, the estate airplane that still runs, the five-year sit — get a number from someone who intends to fly it. Why a non-flying airplane is usually worth more sold whole. Here's how both compare against listing it with a broker.
Tail number is enough to start. Make, model, roughly what shape it's in, and where it sits gets us most of the way. Photos help and aren't required for a first conversation — if you have them, interior, panel, exterior and anything that looks wrong are the useful ones.
Usually within 24 hours. It's a real offer, not a range designed to get you on the phone, and we'll tell you what's driving it. If something about the airplane changes the number, you'll hear why.
Closing runs through a licensed aircraft title company and funds by wire. You don't need to be at the airport, and you don't need to ferry it anywhere — one of our pilots or a truck comes to the airplane. How escrow and title work on an aircraft sale.
"The entire process was smooth, professional, and faster than I expected. I recently got hired at an airline and didn't have time to manage the annual or deal with listing the airplane myself, but Cash4Planes made it super easy. We were able to close remotely on my schedule, which was a huge help. Overall, a great experience. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone looking to sell their airplane quickly and hassle-free."
"Very professional transaction on the sale of my aircraft. Professional team that were straight forward and easy to do business with."
"Tom responded quickly, and followed up with positive choices to get cash for my plane. Thank you, won't hesitate to call again."
Cash4Planes is a direct cash buyer for single-engine piston airplanes, based in Sanford, Florida and buying nationwide. We buy with our own funds — no financing contingency, no broker in the middle, no listing. Most sellers have a number within 24 hours and close in about a week.
Single-engine piston airplanes are the core of it — Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft, Mooney, Cirrus, Grumman and the rest. We buy light twins too — Barons, Senecas, Aztecs, Cessna 310s, 340s and 414s. If you're not sure whether yours qualifies, ask; it costs you a phone call.
No, and we'd generally rather you didn't. Paying for an annual on an airplane you're selling rarely returns what it costs.
Listing means photos, showings, pre-buys, tire kickers and often months of hangar and insurance bills while you wait — sometimes ending with a buyer whose financing falls through. A cash offer is one number and one closing. You'll usually net less than a perfect retail sale, and considerably more than a retail sale that never happens.
Most of what we buy is returned to service and flown again. Salvage yards buy airplanes to disassemble them — that's the right answer for a genuinely wrecked airframe and the wrong answer for a tired-but-repairable one. If your airplane can fly again, a parts buyer's number won't reflect that and ours will.
Anywhere in the continental US. We're in Sanford, Florida, and location affects the number slightly through pickup cost — it doesn't determine whether we're interested.
Very common, especially with estates. Send the tail number and we'll do the research and explain what you have.
None. If the number doesn't work for you, that's a perfectly good outcome and we're not going to keep calling you about it.
Plain-English guides from the pilots and mechanics who do the buying — no sales pitch.
Every step in order — a real valuation, the paperwork, broker vs. cash buyer, and how closing actually works.
Read the guide →The honest math: sold comps, engine time against TBO, annual status, damage history, avionics — and broker vs. cash.
Read the guide →What actually compresses to days, and what never will.
Read the guide →Broker, cash buyer, parts buyer, or the FBO — who pays what, and why.
Read the guide →Why a non-flying airplane is usually worth more sold whole than parted out.
Read the guide →The math on overhauling an engine on an airplane you plan to sell.
Read the guide →More guides: Selling during a divorce · Ferrying an airplane that's sat for years · Selling a flight-school trainer · Selling a late husband's airplane · Dissolving a partnership · All guides →