Aircraft Registry Airports

Terms of Service

Last updated September 15, 2026

What AviHawk Is

AviHawk, on the web and in the AviHawk app for iPhone and iPad, is a reference tool for looking up U.S. aircraft registration records, decoding tail number nationality prefixes, and viewing airport weather (METAR) and frequency information, plus (for account holders) flight planning, live traffic, a pilot profile and logbook, tracked fleet, self-reported ratings, and messaging. For flight schools and clubs, it's also a management platform: scheduling, maintenance tracking, training records, and optional payment processing for billing students (see Payments & Billing below). It is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the FAA, NOAA, or any aviation authority.

Accounts

You're responsible for keeping your password secure and for activity that happens under your account. Use a real email address — it's how we deliver account verification and password resets, and it's the only account contact info we have for you. You must be at least 13 years old to create an account. We can suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms.

Your Content And Conduct

You're responsible for what you post on AviHawk — messages, your profile and photo, squawks, documents, and anything else you add. AviHawk has zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users. Don't post or send anything that:

  • harasses, threatens, bullies, or intimidates anyone;
  • is hateful or discriminatory, or promotes violence;
  • is sexually explicit or obscene;
  • is spam, a scam, or impersonates another person or organisation;
  • shares someone else's private information without their consent; or
  • is unlawful, or infringes someone else's rights.

In the app you can block any user and report any user or message from their profile or the conversation. We review reports within 24 hours, remove content that breaks these rules, and suspend or permanently remove the accounts of users who post it. You can also report a problem to [email protected].

Payments & Billing

Some schools and clubs on AviHawk use it to bill their own students for flight time, rentals, or other charges. If you're a student, you're paying the school — AviHawk is the technology that makes the charge happen, not the other party to that transaction. All payment processing is handled by Stripe, Inc., a third-party payment processor. AviHawk never collects, transmits, or stores your card number — that's handled entirely by Stripe.

Charges you make go directly to the school's own Stripe account, not to AviHawk. Any "balance" shown in the app reflects funds you've already paid to that school; AviHawk does not hold, custody, or have access to that money. AviHawk charges a small platform fee (currently 2%) on each transaction, collected automatically as part of the payment.

Each school sets its own rates, hourly fees, and billing terms — AviHawk does not set, review, or guarantee the accuracy of any school's pricing. Refunds, billing disputes, and disagreements about hours flown or amounts owed are between you and the school; contact the school directly. Because each school's connected Stripe account (not AviHawk) is the merchant of record, financial responsibility for chargebacks and payment disputes on a charge sits with that school, not with AviHawk. Schools that connect a Stripe account through AviHawk separately agree to Stripe's own Connected Account Agreement.

Don't use a stolen, unauthorized, or fraudulent payment method, and don't attempt to reverse a legitimate charge through a chargeback instead of resolving it with the school first.

Subscriptions

AviHawk Pro is an optional, auto-renewing subscription that adds features to the app, such as more live traffic, live tracking and flight history, unlimited aircraft profiles, altitude comparison, currency and medical reminders, and logbook export. It's bought inside the AviHawk app through Apple's App Store, which shows the price and the length of each subscription period before you confirm.

  • Payment is charged to your Apple ID account when you confirm the purchase.
  • The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel it at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your Apple ID account is charged for the renewal within the 24 hours before the current period ends.
  • You can manage or cancel the subscription in your Apple ID account settings at any time. Cancelling stops the next renewal; Pro stays active until the end of the period you've already paid for.
  • If a free trial is offered, any unused portion of it is forfeited when you purchase a subscription.
  • Deleting your AviHawk account does not cancel an App Store subscription. Cancel it in your Apple ID account settings as well.
  • Refunds for App Store purchases are handled by Apple under Apple's own policies.

Members of a school or club whose AviHawk plan includes it may get AviHawk Pro features at no cost to them while they're members, up to a set number of members per aircraft (see below).

School And Club Plans

A flight school or club that uses AviHawk to run its operation pays for it with a plan billed to the school, not to its members. Each new school gets a free period first. After that, the plan is billed monthly, per aircraft on the school's fleet, through Stripe, at the price shown when the school subscribes.

  • A school admin can cancel the plan at any time. It stays active until the end of the period already paid for, and isn't renewed after that.
  • If a plan lapses — because the free period ends without a subscription, a payment fails and isn't resolved, or a cancelled plan reaches the end of its paid period — the school's members lose the AviHawk Pro features the plan included.
  • After a grace period, a school whose plan has lapsed can no longer take new reservations until the plan is active again. The school's existing records are not deleted.

Ratings & Certifications Are Self-Reported

Pilot ratings shown on a profile (PPL, IFR, Commercial, Multi-Engine, and similar) are entered by the account holder and are not independently verified by AviHawk. The exception is professional credentials with real safety consequences if falsely claimed — instructor certificates (CFI/CFII/MEI), Inspection Authorization (IA), and A&P Mechanic: those only display with a "Verified" badge after the holder has sent proof and we've manually confirmed it. Even so, always independently verify any instructor's, IA holder's, or mechanic's actual certificate and standing with the FAA before booking instruction or maintenance — a "Verified" badge here reflects our manual review, not an FAA endorsement, and we can't guarantee it's never wrong.

Not a Substitute for Official Sources

AviHawk is a planning aid only. It is not a substitute for official sources, and nothing in it may be relied upon for maintenance, airworthiness determinations, legal proceedings, or any other purpose where accuracy or currency is safety- or legally-critical. Always verify against the FAA Civil Aviation Registry, official aeronautical charts, an official weather briefing, current NOTAMs and TFRs, and the aircraft's own POH/AFM before acting on anything shown here.

Flight Planning Tools

AviHawk includes flight planning tools — route distance, headings, winds aloft, time and fuel estimates, a load check, and similar. These are advisory aids for preliminary planning only and are not certified for navigation or for operational decision-making.

Specifically, and without limiting the above: routes are straight lines between points and take no account of airspace, terrain, obstacles, procedures, or ATC routing; performance figures are typical values for a type, or figures you have entered yourself, and are not a substitute for your aircraft's POH/AFM; the load check computes weight only and does not compute centre of gravity; weather and winds are forecasts that will change; magnetic variation is modelled and carries its own error. Displayed TFRs and NOTAMs are provided for awareness only, are not guaranteed to be complete or current, and must be verified with an official source such as tfr.faa.gov before flight.

The pilot in command remains solely responsible for all preflight action required by 14 CFR 91.103 and for the safe conduct of every flight.

Data Accuracy

Aircraft registry data is refreshed nightly from the FAA's public Releasable Aircraft Database and may lag the FAA's own records by up to a day. METAR and airport data come from third-party sources (NOAA Aviation Weather Center, OurAirports) and are shown as received, without independent verification. Aircraft spec cards (V-speeds, weights, performance) are typical/representative figures for orientation only, not manufacturer data, and may not match your specific aircraft's actual POH/AFM. Live position and traffic data depends on third-party ADS-B feeds and may be delayed, incomplete, or unavailable; traffic shown in the app is for situational awareness only and must never be used for collision avoidance.

No Warranty

AviHawk is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including accuracy, completeness, or fitness for a particular purpose. Use of any information from AviHawk is at your own risk.

Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, AviHawk and its operator are not liable for any damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, AviHawk or its data. This includes, without limitation, a school's failure to deliver instruction or aircraft time you've paid for, a school's refund or billing practices, disputes over hours flown or amounts owed, and outages or errors in Stripe's payment processing that are outside AviHawk's control.

Acceptable Use

  • Don't scrape, bulk-download, or hammer AviHawk in a way that degrades it for other users.
  • Don't use AviHawk to harass, dox, or target any individual identified in registry records or another account holder.
  • Don't create an account under someone else's identity, or falsely claim a certification you don't hold.
  • Don't attempt to circumvent, probe, or attack AviHawk's infrastructure.

The App Store

If you use the AviHawk app downloaded from Apple's App Store, these terms are between you and AviHawk, not Apple, and Apple's Licensed Application End User License Agreement also applies. Apple has no obligation to provide maintenance or support for the app and is not responsible for it, its content, or any claims relating to it. Apple and its subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these terms and may enforce them against you.

Changes

These terms may be updated from time to time. Continued use of AviHawk after a change constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

Contact

Questions about these terms, reports of abuse, or instructor-rating verification: [email protected]