We have 3374Q on our experimental. Everyone who's spent much time in the certified arena can relate.

A previous owner of the Skalywagon changed it to:
N59181, it's a 1959 182/180 conversion so therein lies the joke. What's really funny is that somehow during pre-buy, annual, uptight instructor, ignorant owner...we all missed the fact that airworthiness cert. had not been updated with newer N# although everything was in the system, just the new paper never made it in the plane. Found this out during what was supposed to be my private pilot checkride and got sent home on a ferry permit with no checkride, got back to Llano n bunch of the locals where all ready to celebrate, haha although maybe not funny at the moment I get a crack out of it looking back

gbflyer wrote:We have 3374Q on our experimental. Everyone who's spent much time in the certified arena can relate.

I see that N337FU is not taken...maybe I need to reserve that one.

This is an older photo... but I think it fits here. Walking out of an airport terminal, I had the following perspective on two parked aircraft.

I will let you decide how / when this business owner chose his registration numbers:



Note - in New Zealand / Australia we use three letter identifiers, with a country code first e.g. ZK-ABC or VH-DEF respectively.

The call sign I **REALLY** want some day is "North American (N)P514M"... Pleasepleaseplease

I was never a fan of custom n numbers. Mine is the same as when It left the factory

When I purchased the SQ-2 the previous owner hoped I'd be willing to relinquish its N-number as it was the birth dates of his kids. Glad to oblige I now needed a number. Took a day of thinking and checking but I finally decided on 58SQ. Derived from my age when I purchased it, and STOL Quest.

I had nothing to do with this choice, but the Stearman wreck purchased off E-Bay that will be my shiny brand new Stearman in a few years is 985SS, 985 being the engine and SS being Super Stearman (I assume). Believe I'll leave that number alone.

Try saying Sierra-Sierra out loud rapidly.

Gump

Barnstormer said:

When I purchased the SQ-2 the previous owner hoped I'd be willing to relinquish its N-number as it was the birth dates of his kids. Glad to oblige...

Way back when...I saw a talk show John Travolta was on talking about his airplanes and mentioned he wanted number 707JT for his 707 but it was already assigned. After the interview the host introduced a person from the audience to John and you could tell something was up by his expression. The guy introduced says, "I am the current owner of 707JT and have decided to give it up so you can have it".

I think there was something newer about this but I can't find it, so I'm reviving an old thread....
After a 3-1/2 year wait, I'm finally getting the original tail number back for my 1953 C180.
I'm not a fan of "vanity numbers" on vintage airplanes,
but if any 180 owners with the initials JB want to go that route,
N180JB should become available pretty soon.
I do know there's a 5-year hold put on de-registered numbers,
which are usually due to someone letting the registration expire,
but not sure about changed numbers.

hotrod180 wrote:I think there was something newer about this but I can't find it, so I'm reviving an old thread....
After a 3-1/2 year wait, I'm finally getting the original tail number back for my 1953 C180.
I'm not a fan of "vanity numbers" on vintage airplanes,
but if any 180 owners with the initials JB want to go that route,
N180JB should become available pretty soon.
I do know there's a 5-year hold put on de-registered numbers,
which are usually due to someone letting the registration expire,
but not sure about changed numbers.

Maybe you should hang onto it and then you can give it to someone directly, that may get around a long waiting period. Just a thought....

Kurt

You revived this thread just in time hotrod. I'm sitting at my desk filling out my registration as we speak. I've had a terrible time picking an number and 337FU is still available...I don't think my pops will like it though..

whee wrote:

gbflyer wrote:We have 3374Q on our experimental. Everyone who's spent much time in the certified arena can relate.

I see that N337FU is not taken...maybe I need to reserve that one.

825SE

8/25 was the day I met my (ex)wife who I was with when I got the plane.

We lived near Yosemite in the California Sierra mountains so 'Sierra Echo'

Dumped the wife; kept the plane.

It's all good now.

whee wrote:You revived this thread just in time hotrod. I'm sitting at my desk filling out my registration as we speak. I've had a terrible time picking an number and 337FU is still available...I don't think my pops will like it though.. [emoji1]

whee wrote:

gbflyer wrote:We have 3374Q on our experimental. Everyone who's spent much time in the certified arena can relate.

I see that N337FU is not taken...maybe I need to reserve that one.

Do it whee! F M if he doesn't like it. Hahahaha hahahaha. [emoji1][emoji1]

Haha 337FM I like it! Unfortunately I can’t do it. My gramps turns 92 this year and hopes to live long enough to fly the BH. We’ve decided to use a N number that includes his initials and part of the N number from his old plane. N454BW.

My old plane had the call sign N343C and it was based from the serial number which was 3343!

Same with a lot of old Cessnas.
Last two digits of my "new" original tail number is the same as the last two of the serial number.

For the glider, I chose the serial number followed by my initials, for N379JL (and it rolls off the tongue good )

For the Cessna 140, no custom numbers. Don't want to taint it by getting rid of its original 72 year old registration. It made it this far like that, and it should stay that way

We are a family full of pilots now, but it all started back in 1966 with my dad and his 1960 C-175. It has long since been crashed and it's old N # not in use now. I almost bought a similar plane to restore and was going to paint it in the original factory scheme his had and try to get his old # back in honor of him and his getting our family hooked on flying. (Still very well may do that someday)

I also have 2 daughters, Miriam & Jasmine, now 12 & 13 that both "say" they really want to learn to fly! ( we shall see?). I have the thought of buying them a good trainer to learn in and maybe take off to college later, and I'd want a tail number that ended in their initials, MJ.

NETX wrote:.....my dad and his 1960 C-175. It has long since been crashed and it's old N # not in use now. I almost bought a similar plane to restore and was going to paint it in the original factory scheme his had and try to get his old # back in honor of him and his getting our family hooked on flying. (Still very well may do that someday).....

I can just see doing that and then at some point trying to sell the airplane.
Somebody will google the tail number and be convinced that you're trying to hide an accident and the subsequent damage history.