Registration numbers

NealRomeoGolf

NealRomeoGolf

Final Approach
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I was curious if any of you have changed the registration numbers on your planes. Not sure how popular that is. I'm not in love with my number and the registration number I've always wanted will be available next year. However I may wait to use it on a later plane rather than my first. Thoughts?
 
Did you buy it from the person that had it previously ? How can you tell of a current owner will not be renewing the number ? I'm genuinely curious.
 
The number I want is on the purge list. My understanding is that means the owner didn't renew it and then a year later it becomes available. The number isn't actually on an airplane if I understand the different registration types.
 
The papework is very easy and only costs $10 and a visit to the FSDO, if I remember correctly. Then you have to actually put the new number on within a specified period of time, and that's the bulk of the expense.
 
The guy who bought my plane had it renumbered. Easy to do, apparently. He had it repainted, too, to match his school colors or something like that.
 
I bet many of us dream of changing our tail numbers but are discouraged by the prohibitive cost of repaint or other deterrents.
I agree with Jeff, the paperwork is the easy part.
But if an airplane has the standard big letters/digits and they are painted on, changing this is not easy.
Airplanes with tiny registration numbers are easy peasy and the vinyl letters can be bought at any local SprawlMart for a few dollars.

In my case, I would definitely like to change my tail number because I have hard time pronouncing it right. It is a tongue-twister. (not sure who came up with it in the first place)
But I'd rather not repaint the dang plane so I'll live with it. :)
 
Unfortunately N88AM is taken.... As was N3166A (Aggie backwards) last time I checked.
 
Will probably change the number,when I decide I'm on my last aircraft.
 
You deal with OKC for the N# reservation and the registration process.
You deal with the FSDO for a replacement Airworthiness Certificate.
 
When you install the new number make sure it's on the correct side of the airplane (hint: numbers slanted forward does not look very snazzy when not installed on a tail dragger).
 
Right now registration reservations are about 40 working days out. Registration application reviews are quicker, judging by how long it took to reject and return mine for revisions. :)
 
DesertNomad said:
Since I can't get NCC-1701, I'll keep mine (which is easy to pronounce).
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The ease of pronunciation is a valid point. My N number is a combination of my initials and birthdate, but I made sure it would roll right off the tongue. If it didn't, I'm sure I would've picked a different one.
 
I'm in the process of changing my N number back to the original from the current vanity number of the previous owner. The original N number placard is still on the panel.
I anticipated the change to be cheap & easy. Not so due to a comedy of errors of my doing. I started this last December and its not finished yet.
Paperwork is $10, but my mechanic added 6 hrs to the annual cost to melt off the old numbers and install the new at $80 per shop hr. So, watch your cost estimate for this operation.
In my correspondence with Oklahoma City, I titled myself as "Managing Partner" and "Partner" in two different places. The que for correspondence varies around six weeks per letter, so clearing up this confusion has taken just that long.
I did get a valid registration last February which did get us back in the air, but these back & forth explanation letters have been glacially slow in finishing the process.
 
I've had 182WT reserved for at least ten years. Waiting for when it's time for paint.182TW wasn't available so I guess Wim Tinters will have to be close enough.

If/when I ever do change it, I'll immediately reserve my original tail number, and keep it reserved, for posterity's sake.
 
So I take it that you can't repaint your new number on your plane with out and AP to sign off?
 
I bought my Grumman Cheetah in 1999 with the previous owner's "vanity" number, N116MC. Coincidentally, at an airport just three miles away there was based a Grumman Tiger, N16MC. I had lunch with the Tiger's owner one day. He suggested we fly in formation over to a nearby tower-controlled field, shoot some touch-and-goes, and play with the controller's mind. :D

When I painted the Cheetah in 2000, I wanted the number N121PS, but found it was one of a block of numbers reserved by Aviat for future Pitts Special production. So I went with my second choice.

Fast forward to 2007, when I ordered a new CubCrafters Sport Cub. The factory asked if I wanted a special number. I checked, and lo and behold, N121PS was now available. The Pitts Special built with that number had been exported to Canada a couple of years earlier, and now the number was mine.

About a year later, I attended a social function at the CubCrafters factory in Yakima, Washington. I was wearing a name tag with my airplane's number. A fellow attendee from Montreal walked up and said, "Hey, that number used to be on my Pitts!"

Small world.
 
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I've changed 7 airplanes to N747JB since 1992, it's pretty simple. Remember to get a new airworthiness certificate from the FSDO after you change the number. I've used vinyl for the last two, still have it on my 425, I'll probably get it painted on the winter. I was thinking about trading, so I reserved the previous number as well to make it simple.
 
Zeldman said:
Vinyl
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FAR 43, appendix A allows owners to refinish "decorative coatings" of just about everything but control surfaces, so you could theoretically paint your own N-Numbers.

If you want it to look halfway decent you're going to have to spray it on (with matching paint, not a rattle can) and you're likely to run into a bunch of BS with airport regulations and hangar lease rules etc. So technically speaking, yes, you could re paint the registration numbers but practically speaking, it may be more of an uphill battle than it's worth.
 
A hangar neighbor at the airport and I have serial numbers 2 apart from the factory. Took 51 years for them to be reunited. But mine was painted/renumbered sometime in the 70's and his has the original factory tail number.
 
Zeldman said:
Vinyl
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Sure, that works too. However, it is not permanent (it WILL start peeling off eventually).
And you must use a huge sheet of vinyl to cover the original number before you can put on the new number.
Some companies do it, they come out to the airport with the vinyl pre-cut and slap it on for "a few hundred". Depends on the size, color, quality and company.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
I think the original N# (as it came from the factory) Is a big part of the planes history. If the plane had it's N# changed I would change it back to the original.

For example there's a 180 on the ramp here N3334D. One day a transient 180 came through N3321D... I noticed the N#'s were only 13 apart and I looked them up and sure enough their serial numbers were 13 apart. Probably the first time they were re-united since the factory.

I'm a sap for that kind of stuff though.
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Mine has the factory original. And until someone on another site pulled all the registrations for this model, I did not see the significance. I knew a lot ended with K, and generally appeared in serial. The N# is model and part of the serial number. I haven't figured out what the K stands for.
 
I'm going through the process right now. You can reserve the new number online very easily and keep it in reserve for a year at a time for $10 a year. All done online, and very easy. I reserved mine back in december.

To put the number on the plane you send them a letter with all your info saying that you wanna put it on there, along with another $10. Then you wait. I've been waiting on mine since mid-June. Eventually they send you approval paperwork in triplicate allowing you to apply the number. One copy you keep as temporary registration, one copy goes back to OKC so they can send you permanent registration, one copy goes to the FSDO for a new airworthiness certificate.

As for the actual aircraft, you can paint it on, or you can do what I did and cover the old with Vinyl. Here's a before and after shot of my plane. The red is all vinyl, and I have the new numbers sitting in my garage waiting for the FAA to send me the paperwork.

Before:
13532932_10209779797401814_1859218335381032232_n.jpg


After:
13516459_10209800369196096_1884569459720159999_n.jpg
 
I had N1RN (which happens to be my amateur radio call sign) reserved for a while but I got to the point where I figured I'd never get around to putting it on an aircraft (my wife was adamant on keeping the factory issued registration number on the Navion). It's on some glider out in Indiana now.
 
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