Interesting registration number...

Ghery

Ghery

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Ghery Pettit
I seem to recall sometime in the past, either here or on the red board, somebody saying that the US was the only place that registered a/c with an all numeric registratioin number. See the attached picture. It only blows up so far (darned 5 Mpixel camera in my phone, should have dug out the DSLR), but the number is UK14001. That makes two countries. :D
 

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There's also China which is "B-#####"...... and there are probably more.
 
Ghery said:
I seem to recall sometime in the past, either here or on the red board, somebody saying that the US was the only place that registered a/c with an all numeric registratioin number. See the attached picture. It only blows up so far (darned 5 Mpixel camera in my phone, should have dug out the DSLR), but the number is UK14001. That makes two countries. :D
Click to expand...


(Motor)Gliders in The Netherlands have PH-xxxx
 
German Gliders also use a similar format D-####
 
Why do most countries use all letters for tail numbers, um, tail letters, anyway?
Of course everyone else probably thinks we're weird for using numbers.
 
fgcason said:
Why do most countries use all letters for tail numbers, um, tail letters, anyway?
Of course everyone else probably thinks we're weird for using numbers.
Click to expand...

Most countries have a smaller pool of available "numbers" for theirs. The US has exclusive access to the "N" stream, so if they used purely numbers it would be 100,000 possible registration numbers. Just by putting in the 2 letters at the end, it ramps up to 1,156,000 possibles (34*34*10*10*10...34 because 24 letters-no Is or Os+10 numbers)

For other countries that have 2 letter prefixes, they only have 4 slots, so they'd only have 10,000 possible numbers, but by being pure alpha, they can have 456,976 possible registrations.
 
Ghery said:
I seem to recall sometime in the past, either here or on the red board, somebody saying that the US was the only place that registered a/c with an all numeric registratioin number. See the attached picture. It only blows up so far (darned 5 Mpixel camera in my phone, should have dug out the DSLR), but the number is UK14001. That makes two countries. :D
Click to expand...
Here's another one.

DSC01135.JPG
 
That's not "interesting." ;)

The first owner-flown DA42 to come into OSH was D-GERM. (Doctor, maybe?) There was a UK plane with the registration G-SPOT that had to be changed. :D

Then, there's the jet that went off the end of the runway and into the water at the old Bader Field in Atlantic City - It was Danish, and had the reg OY-JET. After the incident, their new jet now has the registration OY-WET. :rofl:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
That's not "interesting." ;)

The first owner-flown DA42 to come into OSH was D-GERM. (Doctor, maybe?) There was a UK plane with the registration G-SPOT that had to be changed. :D
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D-GERM for a german piston twin, really?

D-Exxx = piston single MTOW.....kg
D-Mxxx = Ultra light
D-Hxxx = Helicopter
D-Ixxx = piston twin MTOW....kg
D-Kxxx = Motor glider
And so on.
 
kmies said:
(Motor)Gliders in The Netherlands have PH-xxxx
Click to expand...

As far as I know, all aircraft in the Netherlands have a PH prefix.
Usually it is PH followed by a series of digits.

The prototype of the Fokker F28 s/n 001 had the registration PH - JHG named after J. Greidanus , PhD, Director of Engineering at Fokker. So, vanity registrations were available.
 
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I've seen "172FU." Wish I had a camera handy....:)
 
kmies said:
D-GERM for a german piston twin, really?

D-Exxx = piston single MTOW.....kg
D-Mxxx = Ultra light
D-Hxxx = Helicopter
D-Ixxx = piston twin MTOW....kg
D-Kxxx = Motor glider
And so on.
Click to expand...

Yeah... I dug up my picture of it but the tail number is completely obscured. :dunno:
 
The list of prefixes here:
http://www.pilotfriend.com/aircraft performance/reg.htm

Canada's is C-Fxxx or C-Gxxx. All letters. It used to be CF-xxxx but we ran out of the designations in the early '70s when I was learning to fly. There are, obviously, some combinations that aren't issued but occasionally we'll see one that makes one wonder.

C-Ixxx is for ultralights. Gotta have them registered here, but Canadian ultralights tend to be significantly more substantial here, too.

We make occasional trips to the US, where the controllers can't get their tongues around the idents. They're used to numbers with maybe a letter or two at the end. The old 180 was C-FIAC, or Foxtrot India Alpha Charlie. The girl in Salt Lake made several attempts that ran from "Foxtrot Indie Alphia..." to 'Foxtrot India Alphie Charlia" and so forth. She finally gave up and called us "Canadian 180." Hilarious. Could hear the other controllers in the tower laughing in the background, but they weren't the ones trying to say it.

Dan
 
There was a Lear 25 at the airfield I flew out of in Italy with the registration "I-FLY". It was jet black with gold trim and registered to a local gold dealer (or so I was informed).
 
Dan Thomas said:
We make occasional trips to the US, where the controllers can't get their tongues around the idents. They're used to numbers with maybe a letter or two at the end. The old 180 was C-FIAC, or Foxtrot India Alpha Charlie. The girl in Salt Lake made several attempts that ran from "Foxtrot Indie Alphia..." to 'Foxtrot India Alphie Charlia" and so forth. She finally gave up and called us "Canadian 180." Hilarious. Could hear the other controllers in the tower laughing in the background, but they weren't the ones trying to say it.

Dan
Click to expand...

That is what I like about visiting the US in our Canadian aircraft. Even the most rapid fire controllers stumble on our registrations. This gives me time to put down my drink, find my pencil and scratch my ***** before the controller finishes with the call up.
 
Here's the obligatory Dornier SeaStar shot with the observation they're not nice people:

dornier-seastar-2.jpg
 
snowbird said:
That is what I like about visiting the US in our Canadian aircraft. Even the most rapid fire controllers stumble on our registrations. This gives me time to put down my drink, find my pencil and scratch my ***** before the controller finishes with the call up.
Click to expand...

I listen to KBUF all the time, they never have a problem with it, but I bet that's common in most border cities.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Here's the obligatory Dornier SeaStar shot with the observation they're not nice people:
Click to expand...

Lol,

To me it says that it is a multiengine aircraft with mtow of 2-5.7tons. Whoever filled out the paperwork for the registration was probably aware of the planes pedigree and had a sense of literature:


365px-Moby-Dick_FE_title_page.jpg
 
Could be; it looks vaguely like the wal. They should have used something other than an 'E' at the end if possible. If they ended it with an 'E' they could have gotten 2 puns for the price of one. IIRC, "dicke" is one wast of saying "fat" ("fett" is more common, I think)
 
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