FAA pilot lookup: searching the airmen registry properly
The FAA keeps a public registry of every certificated airman in the country — over a million pilots, mechanics, and remote pilots, with their certificates, ratings, and medicals. It's one of the most useful public datasets in aviation, and one of the hardest to actually search.
The official Airmen Inquiry wants an exact last name, serves a CAPTCHA, and offers no way to search by place, certificate, or aircraft type. But the questions people bring to the registry are almost never "show me this exact spelling" — they're "who teaches in SF50s near O'Hare?" and "is this A&P current?" This guide covers both the registry itself and how to query it like that.
What an airman record contains
Every certificated airman's public record includes:
- Certificates held — Private, Commercial, ATP, Flight Instructor, Mechanic, Remote Pilot, and more
- Ratings on each certificate — single/multi-engine, instrument, rotorcraft…
- Type ratings — the specific large/turbojet aircraft the airman is rated in
- Medical class and date (pilots)
- City, state, and mailing address on file
Searching the way questions actually arrive
AvDB's Airmen search reads certificates, aircraft types, airports, and places as first-class search terms. “A&P KPWK” returns mechanics near Palwaukee, sorted by actual distance in miles. “CFI SF50 ORD” finds the handful of instructors with Vision Jet time around O'Hare. A name plus a city disambiguates a common surname instantly.
The distance sort deserves a word: the FAA's public downloads carry addresses, not coordinates. AvDB geocodes airman addresses and measures real miles from the airport you name — which is why it can answer “nearest” at all. That data simply isn't in the official tool.
- 1
Pick the Airmen source
Tap the source pill in AvDB's search box and choose Airmen.
- 2
Combine certificate + place
Spoken forms work: ATP, CFI, A&P, IA, remote pilot — plus an airport ident, city, or state. Add a type (SF50, 737) to narrow further.
- 3
Read distance-sorted results
Results show certificates in plain language (“Pilot · Mechanic +IA”) and miles from your airport — tap through for the full record with every type rating linked to the encyclopedia.
Who uses airmen search
Flight schools and students hunting instructors. Owners looking for a mechanic with inspection authorization. Employers and insurers verifying a certificate before someone touches an airplane. Curious passengers who just learned their neighbor claims to be an ATP. The registry is public precisely so all of them can check.
Frequently asked questions
Is the FAA airmen registry public?+
Yes — certificates, ratings, and city/state are public record (airmen can request address withholding). AvDB searches the same released registry with certificate, type, and location terms.
Why can't I find a pilot on the FAA's own search?+
The official inquiry requires an exact last-name match and offers no fuzzy or location search. In AvDB, a partial name plus a city or state usually lands the record in one try.
Can I search pilots near an airport?+
Yes — AvDB geocodes airman addresses and sorts results by real miles from any airport ident. “CFI KDPA” literally lists instructors nearest DuPage.
Does the search include drone pilots?+
Yes — Part 107 remote pilots are certificated airmen and fully searchable; “drone,” “remote,” and “sUAS” all work as search terms.
Run it in AvDB
The whole federal record, one search box
Every lookup in this guide is a single search in AvDB — free to download, with free searches every month.