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Posted

The other day while sitting in the belly of the beast (Delta), I was thinking... "how close to running out of N-Numbers are we in the US?"

Posted
9 minutes ago, 211º said:

The other day while sitting in the belly of the beast (Delta), I was thinking... "how close to running out of N-Numbers are we in the US?"

There’s like 36^5 numbers available and only a couple hundred thousand planes. So like 60M plus numbers available :)

Posted (edited)

Current registered fleet is under 220,000 aircraft.

counting only 3 digit plus 2 letter N- numbers

999 times 24 times 24 = 575,424
Adding 4 digit 1 letter 

9999 times 24 = 239,976

5 digit 99999

counting other combinations (numbers with less than 5 spaces) that is about a million options.

3 number one letter, 2 numbers 2 letters, 2 numbers one letter, one number two letter

less than 20% of available numbers in the current registered fleet.

I am not aware of any numbers that contain more than two letters and only at the end.

IE no NJAZZY type combinations available. 
forgot about the no O or I rule.

Edited by RJBrown
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Posted

Probably don’t need a mathematician to figure this out…

Because, you guys have done a great job already.

What kind of friend wouldn’t invite @aviatoreb to a math party… :)

Best regards,

-a-

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Posted

No "NJAZZY" available yet....   I'm still shocked that someone in the FAA hasn't gotten a vanity plate for their car and then whacked their forehead !!

How much would you pay to have a vanity N-"ID" ???

 

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Posted
1 minute ago, PeteMc said:

No "NJAZZY" available yet....   I'm still shocked that someone in the FAA hasn't gotten a vanity plate for their car and then whacked their forehead !!

How much would you pay to have a vanity N-"ID" ???

 

I have a sort of vanity plate tail number.

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Posted

Aviation has become modern overnight…

Tail numbers are in the FAA database…

The need for it to have an N up front… is only because when somebody asks what your N number is… you will know what they are talking about…

When I spend 10s of AMUs on a new paint scheme… I want the tail number to be CARUSOAM…. :)

I promise to not miss a single ATC call that way…

And you guys won’t be afraid to say hi either…

Best regards,

-a-

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Posted

Don't forget the short numbers! A friend has N#XY, where # is a number and XY is two letters. There should be 10 x 26 x 26 = 6760 of these, plus some N##Xs (10 x 10 x 26) in there, plus N##XY (10 x 10 x 26 x 26), etc., etc.

For numbers being used, there are all of the old crashed planes, abandoned planes, dusty planes tucked inside moldy hangars that the 3-year renewal period is intended to flush out. And all airliners have a small N number somewhere. Plus the many numbers on reserve for that plane I'll build or buy some day, or a cool number I'll change to when I eventually repaint, and some other numbers on hold to sell at a huge markup. 

Visit the FAA's website and see how few numbers are not assigned or reserved . . . .

Posted
1 hour ago, Hyett6420 said:

So this is a perfect opportunity to do some thread creep, after all where would m space be without thread creep…

so when you guys call up you say 

Mooney 314EB request blah blah

then say Mooney 14 EB going forward

we say Golf Oscar Bravo Alpha Lima request blah blah

then say Golf Alpha Bravo.  So in the USA what would I say for AL?  

If I called in as Mooney 314EB, they will often come back with Mooney 4EB. So when you call in with your non-numeric registration,  just use whatever they call you back as. (Please pardon my destruction of the King's English, I'm about to fire up the coffeemaker . . . . )

Maybe one of our Canadian cousins can comment with their experience.

Is -AL coming to visit???

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Posted (edited)

What’s interesting to me is that every US citizen can be identified from every other by a 9 digit number.

‘So why does my telephone account, TV satellite account etc need 16 digits or whatever they are?

I love hearing ATC deal with the Canadian airplanes alphabet soup, you can hear them pause and think before they respond.

I changed the tail number on my Maule when I recovered it, the last two digits were my initials, I wanted 1JB, but that was taken by some biz jet.

‘I have heard of people being offered large amounts of money for their tail number, 1JB most likely bought that one for example, the guy who bought my Maule was surprised I didn’t keep the tail number, he was expecting to have to repaint I guess. 

A good friend, now dead had the Ga license plate NHRA on his Chevelle. He was offered pretty large sums for it but never sold it.

You need the N as it denotes nationality of course and used to be there was a second letter, denoting category, NX for experimental etc.

My little Cessna is NC, which is allowed to be displayed, but you cannot use the C in a radio call, I have the original wing “buzz” numbers too, but they are not tail numbers, but merely decoration legally.

The legal tail numbers are on the tail. what’s on the wing doesn’t count, this is as close to the original 1946 paint job that I could get 

There are no restrictions on washing airplanes in the country either, I honestly had never heard of that until the other day.

Lately I have changed my CTAF calls and don’t use my tail number, but blue and white Mooney, I want whoever looking for a blue and white Mooney.

86486A38-4B42-4910-B0FB-0D81CF38992F.jpeg

Edited by A64Pilot
Posted
7 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

So this is a perfect opportunity to do some thread creep, after all where would m space be without thread creep…

so when you guys call up you say 

Mooney 314EB request blah blah

then say Mooney 14 EB going forward

we say Golf Oscar Bravo Alpha Lima request blah blah

then say Golf Alpha Bravo.  So in the USA what would I say for AL?  

Well - paul Simon says, you can call me al.  Call me al.  Doo doo doot.  Doo doo doot….

when I check in I say November 314 echo bravo.

then later seems atc calls me Mooney echo bravo and that’s what I call myself on read back.

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Posted
9 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

So this is a perfect opportunity to do some thread creep, after all where would m space be without thread creep…

so when you guys call up you say 

Mooney 314EB request blah blah

then say Mooney 14 EB going forward

we say Golf Oscar Bravo Alpha Lima request blah blah

then say Golf Alpha Bravo.  So in the USA what would I say for AL?  

Probably Bravo Alpha Lima, but I'll +1 that you can respond with whatever they're calling you by, as long as it is accurate.   In other words, if it's wrong correct them, but if they use G-AL or BAL after the first contact you can respond with that.   You're not supposed to abbreviate your call sign unless ATC does, but it's really common to do so.    I don't think I've ever heard any tail number abbreviated to anything but the last three characters, including for visiting Canadian or Mexican aircraft.   

 

 

Posted (edited)
13 hours ago, EricJ said:

Probably Bravo Alpha Lima, but I'll +1 that you can respond with whatever they're calling you by, as long as it is accurate.   In other words, if it's wrong correct them, but if they use G-AL or BAL after the first contact you can respond with that.   You're not supposed to abbreviate your call sign unless ATC does, but it's really common to do so.    I don't think I've ever heard any tail number abbreviated to anything but the last three characters, including for visiting Canadian or Mexican aircraft.   

 

 

Flying into St Augustine some years ago, the controller abbreviated my tail number to the first three digits. Tail was N5357Z. Tower kept calling me "Cessna 535." For the first few transmissions I had no idea they were talking to me, 

 

Edited by midlifeflyer
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