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Registration Number Specs

rockitdoc

rockitdoc

Well Known Member
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I searched all over for the FAA requirements for the registration number requirements and cannot find it. I know it must be at least 12" if plane goes over 180, flies to foreign lands, and must be Roman type (which is confusing because Roman type is with serifs, and that might be considered embellished, which is not allowed). Also, 'contrasting' colors, which is subjective, at best. Anyway, I can't find the spacing requirements or acceptable fonts. What I want is what I have below, but before I commit and buy both sides I would like to know I didn't blow $50 for nothing.

Fuse Registration # Position.jpg
 
rockitdoc said:
I searched all over for the FAA requirements for the registration number requirements and cannot find it. I know it must be at least 12" if plane goes over 180, flies to foreign lands, and must be Roman type (which is confusing because Roman type is with serifs, and that might be considered embellished, which is not allowed). Also, 'contrasting' colors, which is subjective, at best. Anyway, I can't find the spacing requirements or acceptable fonts. What I want is what I have below, but before I commit and buy both sides I would like to know I didn't blow $50 for nothing.

View attachment 55302
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All of the requirements are in FAR 45

 
rockitdoc said:
I searched all over for the FAA requirements for the registration number requirements and cannot find it. I know it must ...be Roman type (which is confusing because Roman type is with serifs, and that might be considered embellished, which is not allowed).
Click to expand...

Noooooo....it says "Roman capital letters". Not type. It means the letters A through Z and number 0-9, not Cyrillic or Greek or Arabic... It does not mean Times New Roman font. :)
 
For what it's worth, there's nothing subjective about the contrasting colors statement. There's a chart with the reflectivity index of different colors and the delta between the number and the background has to be above a certain value to be considered "contrasting". It's been decades since I had to deal with stuff like that professionally and I don't remember where it came from. I think maybe it was an advisory circular but maybe not. I just remember that I had it on my desk and if somebody speced an airplane with a wild paint job you could take that to the bank when it came time to hang an AW cert on it.

At any rate, if push comes to shove and the feds want to put the brakes on your super cool ghosted N number, theres a reference for it more than just subjective opinion.
 
One of the EAA Homebuilder's Week webinars (last week) covered this topic in detail with lots of examples given. Doing it wrong can prevent you from getting your Airworthiness Certificate if your DAR follows the rules. The webinars were recorded and should be easy to find on EAA's website, as long as you are a member with an account. I watched a bunch of them and don't recall which one covered it.
 
Walking around OSH (or any airport, really), it is amazing the different fonts, colors, angles, placement, etc. :oops: Many would have a tough time passing with some DARs. Have you talked to your DAR about what he/she thinks is 'legal'? Following the recommendations is always a good thing but can crimp ones creative style....
 
Roadjunkie1 said:
Walking around OSH (or any airport, really), it is amazing the different fonts, colors, angles, placement, etc. :oops: Many would have a tough time passing with some DARs. Have you talked to your DAR about what he/she thinks is 'legal'? Following the recommendations is always a good thing but can crimp ones creative style....
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Oooorrrrr...get the AW Cert with bare metal, then go and paint it. Just sayin'...
 
Cameltron said:
evokeaircraftdesign.com

Registration Regulations — Evoke Aircraft Design

A list of regulations for registration numbers with visual examples to help you while making your custom aircraft paint scheme design and livery.
evokeaircraftdesign.com evokeaircraftdesign.com

Evoke have a pretty comprehensive guide including some non-US requirements
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By the way, I think the threshold for requiring 12" letters is a "maximum cruise speed" of 180 kts. I don't think there are any RV's that would strictly require 12" letters, except Rockets and Super-RVs. ( I guess one can argue the semantics of 'maximum cruise speed' vs 'maximum speed'.)

There is also an exception for airplanes if an airplane of that design existed more than 30 yrs ago, which many RVs qualify for.

A big thing is that the N number can not be on the fuselage under the horizontal tail. It is just amazing to me how often I see airplanes with the N number under the horizontal tail - suggesting that DARs don't all follow the 'real' rules. Sometimes they are lax on rules, sometimes they make up their own rules, like no zip ties FWF. But I digress.

(note the wording here including 'fuselage'. In the case of T-tailed aircraft, it can be on the vertical tail, which is 'under the horizontal tail' but allowed.
 
Something I learned at Oshkosh at a forum about painting your own plane is that the N number letters and numbers look best when they slant toward the back of the plane. This means the two N numbers will be different. On the pilot's side, the numbers and letters slant to the right and on the co-pilot's side the numbers slant to the left. This is not an FAA requirement, but rather an aesthetic thing. Also, the shadows should be on the aft side of the letters and numbers.
 
RV7A Flyer said:
Oooorrrrr...get the AW Cert with bare metal, then go and paint it. Just sayin'...
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And that there is why a lot of us DAR’s take photos for our personal files when we do a certification.
They provide evidence of how the airplane was configured on the day of certification. After that the responsibility is with the owner.
 
As Scott says, most aircraft are not painted at certification. The location of the Numbers is usually changed at the paint shop.
 
Quality paints have an RV (reflectivity value) that should be listed in paint spec. As I recall the FAA required a 15 point spread between the color of the numbers and the background color. Font shadow box and slant were all over the place on custom design paint jobs for certified business jets. I will have 3 inch numbers on my RV8, if I want to fly outside conus I will stick on a temp 12 inch number set as required to cross AZD
 
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