Does anybody have experience ordering permanent Vinyl N-Numbers from any of the online places (sporty's, nnumbers.com, engravers.net, etc.) Looking for a single decal to cover up the 3-inch numbers on each side of a 185 tail. Do any of the places match Imron paint colors? Tried searching forums on a couple different sites, but seems they all quickly diverge into legality of 3 inch versus 12 inch, requirements for ADIZ crossing, why you should never change your N-Number, etc., etc...

Thanks in advance!

I’ve had very good luck with Higher Graphics

http://www.highergraphics.com/

Matching existing colors is hard. Give them a call and they can provide some insight I’m sure. Karen and Steve are great folks to do business with there.

Aero graphics was great to work with. I got some painting masks from them, and all the lettering on the instrument panel


http://www.aerographics.com


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Curious what you are meaning by "permanent vinyl?" The beauty of vinyl is that its not permanent. I do lots of design work and have a local guy cut it all out on his machine. He can get hundreds of colors and do pretty much everything I want. Just find the local truck lettering guy and you will be golden. Bring in an inspection panel and he can flip thru the chip charts. If he doenst have it in stock, he can order it for you to get pretty close. There are only a handful of vinyl manufacturers, so its not rocket science. Just make sure you dont order the cheap stuff and you will be good.

The font that is most common for N#s is called Amarillo USAF. https://www.dafont.com/amarillo-usaf.font I give it a slight lean in Illustrator.

When I said "permanent", I am trying to find something that will last as long as possible and not just something you stick on to get you across a border.

Appreciate all the ideas so far.

That’s reasonable. The Higher Graphics stuff has lasted 10 years on my aircraft with zero degradation.

I bought mine at a local sign shop. It has lasted 10 years and still looks fine. I don't remember the font but they had many to choose from and I picked the font, color, and size that I liked.

How well do the work when they overlap seams and rivets?

Bagarre wrote:How well do the work when they overlap seams and rivets?

I sized mine to fit a place with no rivets or seams but the vinyl is so flexible I don't think it would be a problem. But, again, I didn't try.

Henny wrote:…. Looking for a single decal to cover up the 3-inch numbers on each side of a 185 tail....

Spruce sells vinyl numbers in either 3" or 12".
I bought my 2" numbers from Aerographics, they have a lot more size options and a lot more colors to choose from.
Call them & they will send you a catalog including color samples,
you should be able to get pretty close to most colors.
I don't know if the type of number strips they sell will "cover up" an existing set of 3" numbers,
unless the numbers / letters on the new graphic are exactly the same size & font--
in which case why install it (unless it's a color thing?)
FWIW my set of 2" numbers from Aerographics cost about $28 shipped,
I had them just a few days after ordering on the phone.

Suggestion: if you have a choice of fonts, pick one that is actually legible. FAR 45.21(c)(4) says that, but I've seen quite a number of experimentals that have had cutesy fonts resembling cursive writing or other fonts that are really hard to read. It would be a shame to have a ramp check and be grounded because the Inspector concluded that an N number couldn't be easily read!

Cary

Here’s something on the topic of using a non-standard font

Edit: I forgot to include a link

https://www.reddit.com/r/flying/comment ... times_new/

Title 45.23 requires roman letters. roman letters are the alphabet that we commonly use as opposed to the Greek alphabet or Russian alphabet it is not times roman the faa guy is misinformed or has no knowledge about the regulation. If you used the Greek equivalent of n it would be a violation as long as you use our common alphabet for the letter in the n number you are good to go. I am retired from the suing profession

Moss farmer wrote:Title 45.23 requires roman letters. roman letters are the alphabet that we commonly use as opposed to the Greek alphabet or Russian alphabet it is not times roman the faa guy is misinformed or has no knowledge about the regulation. If you used the Greek equivalent of n it would be a violation as long as you use our common alphabet for the letter in the n number you are good to go. I am retired from the suing profession

Right, but there are fonts using Roman letters other than times new Roman.

Any town of any size will probably have several sign shops, equipped to squirt out your numbers, the equipment is common these days, support your local businesses.. I'd bet you could also get them installed also, for free, if you offer the installer a ride,

I just removed the old N-Number from my airplane this weekend (the previous owner wanted to keep it) and put on my new N-number. Used vinyl for both, removal and application was very easy, there was almost no residue to clean up. I would also recommend going with two tone to give it a 3D effect (photo attached), it adds some depth and it just a smaller version over the top.

I'm kind of big on keeping the original tail numbers on vintage airplanes,
so I'm curious why you didn't put the original number back on it?
A little googling reveals that would be N89538, which is unissued at this time.
Or is that the one the previous owner kept?
Seems weird for him to want to hang onto that one,
unless he has a really really hard time memorizing a new number.

I just put the original number back on my own airplane about a year ago--
had to wait several years for it to become available, but I got it.
I know several other people who've done the same thing.

hamer wrote:I just removed the old N-Number from my airplane this weekend (the previous owner wanted to keep it) and put on my new N-number. Used vinyl for both, removal and application was very easy, there was almost no residue to clean up. I would also recommend going with two tone to give it a 3D effect (photo attached), it adds some depth and it just a smaller version over the top.

FWIW, in Canada for sure, and I'm quite sure down on the US, it's not legal to have letters shared like that.

hotrod180 wrote:I'm kind of big on keeping the original tail numbers on vintage airplanes,
so I'm curious why you didn't put the original number back on it?
A little googling reveals that would be N89538, which is unissued at this time.
Or is that the one the previous owner kept?
Seems weird for him to want to hang onto that one,
unless he has a really really hard time memorizing a new number.

I just put the original number back on my own airplane about a year ago--
had to wait several years for it to become available, but I got it.
I know several other people who've done the same thing.

Yea I didn't think about that until I was already too far into the process. But reserving that number is on my to do list and I'll probably change it over when the registration is up for renewal in 3 years. He wanted to keep that number (N328AL) because it was his daughter's birthday/initials.

A1Skinner wrote:FWIW, in Canada for sure, and I'm quite sure down on the US, it's not legal to have letters shared like that.

Interesting, I'll have to look into it. That's how he had it, and he provided me with a matching set of my new numbers since he wanted to keep N328AL.

Edit: Looks like I'm okay:

hamer wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:I'm kind of big on keeping the original tail numbers on vintage airplanes,
so I'm curious why you didn't put the original number back on it?
A little googling reveals that would be N89538, which is unissued at this time.
Or is that the one the previous owner kept?
Seems weird for him to want to hang onto that one,
unless he has a really really hard time memorizing a new number.

I just put the original number back on my own airplane about a year ago--
had to wait several years for it to become available, but I got it.
I know several other people who've done the same thing.

Yea I didn't think about that until I was already too far into the process. But reserving that number is on my to do list and I'll probably change it over when the registration is up for renewal in 3 years. He wanted to keep that number (N328AL) because it was his daughter's birthday/initials.

A1Skinner wrote:FWIW, in Canada for sure, and I'm quite sure down on the US, it's not legal to have letters shared like that.

Interesting, I'll have to look into it. That's how he had it, and he provided me with a matching set of my new numbers since he wanted to keep N328AL.

Edit: Looks like I'm okay:

n-number.PNG

Interesting that it says shading is ok "if it makes the number more kegible". Sounds like they really leave that up to the inspector. This is our Canadian reg, no ornamentation allowed: