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Duration of Aircraft Registration

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FAA Regulations

Hello everyone. I have recently just started working as a CFI and am new to this forum, and have come across something in the flight school where I teach that no one can seem to answer, so I need your help.

As far as I understand, aircraft registration is valid for 3 years until the end of the month of when it was registered as per 14 CFR §47.40. The same regulation also specifies in a table how aircraft that have been "grandfathered" into the new system should have their registration renewed. I recently looked at the registration certificates of some of our aircraft and have found that their durations are almost twice the duration specified in Part 47, sometimes even more. Seeing this, I decided to search some aircraft from my old flight schools where I've trained on the FAA website, and found their registration certificates to also be longer than 3 years.

My question comes down to this: why are so many aircraft registration certificates valid for longer than the time specified in the regs? Are they registered under a different part? If so, then which regulation applies and why? What is the exception?

Thanks,
Dmitriy

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6 Answers



  1. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 25, 2014

    47.40 is the only regulation that deals with registration.

    Give us a few registration numbers, so that we can see what you are looking at. Sometimes, we will see a detail that you might have missed that would explain your question.

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  2. Dmitriy on Sep 25, 2014

    N53020, N166AC, and N960WC are a few that I have noticed.

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  3. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 25, 2014

    I believe that you are looking at the registration info on http://www.faa.gov.

    You are comparing the Certificate Issue date to the Expiration date and see more than a three year period of time.

    The Certificate Issue date is not the date of the most recent renewal. It is the date on which the registration was first issued to the current owner.

    That is why you are seeing the apparent large time span.

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  4. Dmitriy on Sep 25, 2014

    The certificate itself shows the same numbers. Does this mean that the only way to know when the certificate was renewed was to count 3 years before the expiration date? I don’t think it’s on the certificate itself.

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  5. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 26, 2014

    That would be the way to determine when the certificate was renewed.

    However, that is information that no one would be interested in.

    The only thing to be concerned about is that the registration certificate has not expired, or that it is not about to expire soon.

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  6. Dmitriy on Sep 26, 2014

    Granted no one is interested, but you’d be amazed the questions my students ask me sometimes.

    Thank you, Kris! Much appreciated.

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