Updated . Educational only — not tax, legal, or lending advice. Confirm figures with your CPA, the state revenue department, and a lender before you close.
“Private Lender” Usually Means One of Three Things
There is no single private-lender rate for airplanes. The phrase covers three different sources of money, with different licenses and different collateral appetites.
Credit unions
A credit union you already belong to may finance a straightforward piston at a consumer rate if the amount is inside their secured-loan policy and the aircraft is U.S.-registered and insured. Many will not finance turbines, experimentals, or anything they cannot repo through a car-style process. Ask for the aircraft policy, not the auto-loan rate sheet. Membership geography and the maximum secured term are the usual limits.
Specialty aircraft finance companies
These lenders exist to take aircraft collateral. They know logbooks, STCs, and FAA filings. They are who a brokerage such as Jaken Aviation shops when a credit union has said no. They are still lenders, or they are placing paper with lenders. Ask which. A broker is not the party funding the note.
Seller and true private notes
A seller who carries paper is a private lender in the literal sense. The note still has to be secured and recorded, or the buyer’s bank will not be first lien later. Interest that looks cheap and a lien that was never filed is how the next buyer’s escrow blows up. Hard-money real-estate terms — very short, very expensive, asset-only — are a poor fit for an aircraft that needs insurance and annual inspections to exist as collateral. If someone offers that structure, price the fees in the calculator before you compare it with a five-year specialty note.
Questions buyers actually ask
Is a broker a private lender?
No. Jaken Aviation is a brokerage. It does not fund the loan. The lender is the party named on the note.
Can I use a securities-backed line instead of an aircraft loan?
Sometimes, and then the collateral is the securities, not the airplane. That is a different product, with margin risk the aircraft lender is not taking.