Aircraft Registration Question

I sent in the paperwork to the FAA for the Aircraft Registration, but it came back deficient.

According to the cover letter (which assigned a new last name to me!), the deficiency is in the Affidavit of Ownership. In that form, I included information about the engine. According to the EAA instructions, if not purchased, one should simply put down "not yet purchased". However, the FAA cover letter states that the serial number needs to be included.

Has anybody encountered this issue? Should I just assume that I need to wait for the engine to arrive at the end of July?

TIA

This block on Form 8050-88 has been present on the form for quite a long time but "not yet purchased" has previously been an acceptable entry.... Until some time recently, when the registration division began kicking them back as incomplete.

We have been made aware of it by RV builders that are trying to acquire financing prior to their aircraft being completed.
To obtain financing, lenders typically require the aircraft to be registered (even if it is not complete) to legally establish its existence.

We are trying to establish a working conversation with people within the FAA to try and work something out regarding this.

The only suggestion I can offer is that you contact EAA and explain the situation. They may already be aware of it.... not sure. They have good inside connections within the FAA to be able to possibly get some discussion going on this as well.

Thanks for the good information. It seems I may need to wait until I receive the engine next month before I can successfully resubmit this form. Even so, there is a phone number included with the FAA letter, so I may give that a shot in addition to reaching out to the EAA.

I registered mine about a year ago... maybe a bit longer and had no engine. I didn?t have an issue registering it.

I spoke with the FAA this morning and they said this was a directive from their legal folks. According to the rep I spoke with, this has always been a requirement, but that they had previously not declined registrations without an engine serial number. That has now changed. I also spoke with the EAA and they said they were aware of the issue and that a revised guide would note the requirement.

I have been in communication with the EAA as well regarding the dialog they have had with the FAA.
It is not clear yet at this point whether any effort is being made to provide a means of getting a waver for the requirement of providing and engine serial #.

If/when I find out more, I will post it here.

In the mean time, anyone planning on obtaining any financing for any portion of their project should probably start that process earlier than they may have otherwise, because at least for the near term, if lenders want to continue doing business with kit builders, it looks like they will have to find a way to get past the requirement of the builder possessing an FAA registration for the project prior to having an engine.

If someone is planning to get a new engine, could they order it and get a serial number at the time of ordering?