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Tail numbers or Aircraft ID that start with F, G, and I

F- France
G – UK
I – Italy

Must they be a specific length (5 characters)? Are numbers allowed? Any other rules that could be used to distinguish an aircraft tail number? Looking at an issue in Canada where pilots are required to use a five character Aircraft ID, all alpha characters. Canadian registry begins with CFaaa, CGaaa, or CIaaa. Some pilots file with the last four and omit the C. This causes NavCanada to have to re-enter their flightplans when they receive them via the AFTN network. Is there a way to distinguish a four character aircraft ID beginning with one of these letters from a valid one from France, UK, or Italy?

KUZA, United States

Most of them aren’t numbers

Apart from those you mention, many European countries identify the class of plane through the registration:

D-H[A:Z][A:Z][A:Z] helicopter
D-K[A:Z][A:Z][A:Z] powered glider
D-M[A:Z][A:Z][A:Z] ultralight – Germans tend to speak of “E-Klasse” and “M-Klasse” like if it were a kind of Mercedes…
D-[0:9][0:9][0:9][0:9] glider

F-P[A:Z][A:Z][A:Z] experimental/home-built. “Les rendez-vous des Fox-Papa” used to be a common expression at one time
F-W[A:Z][A:Z][A:Z] temporary registration during certification process (or some such)

OO-[0:9][0:9][0:9] homebuilt
OO-[A:Z][0:9][0:9] ultralight (european style, i.e. mostly two-seater 450 kg)

PH-[0:9]{A:Z][0:9] ultralight (european style, i.e. mostly two-seater 450 kg)

I am sure many more can be added. I am however not aware of any such classification in the UK. Very generally, most European countries keep registrations to five characters and, if numbers are used, it is for specific categories. But there’s quite some exceptions, like ultralights in CZ or HU.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Thanks,

I am only interested in registrations that begin with F, G or I. Is it valid to state that if an aircraft ID begins with one of these Nationality codes, the full registration will be five characters or it is invalid? I am dealing with Canadian registrations of four characters that omit the fifth leading Nationality code of C. According to their registry rules, the second character must be F, G, or I. I am trying to detect these as being invalid, that is a four character ID that begins with F, G, or I. Since it seems that valid aircraft ID’s can begin with those characters, but must have 5 characters in total.

KUZA, United States

NCYankee wrote:

Is it valid to state that if an aircraft ID begins with one of these Nationality codes, the full registration will be five characters or it is invalid?

I have no source that I can quote, but from these three national registrations I have never seen anything other but four letters following the I-, F- and G- . Just letters, no numbers. So always five characters total as you write and therefore certainly distinguishable from a Canadian four-character registration.

EDDS - Stuttgart

I am sure a French or Italian pilot will post their info here, but for G the next four letters can be anything.

You can be allocated the next one in the sequence (which started probably around 1910 ) or choose a custom one. BTW, G numbers of destroyed planes can never be re-used unless that plane is rebuilt – unlike in the USA.

Is it valid to state that if an aircraft ID begins with one of these Nationality codes, the full registration will be five characters or it is invalid?

Yes.

Any other rules that could be used to distinguish an aircraft tail number?

As Jan indicates above, not all letter combinations are usable on some registrations. I don’t know the details but for example a light aircraft on the D reg is always D-Exxx. There may be something similar on F or I but there certainly isn’t on G.

So, if this what you are looking for, you can’t validate a X-YYYY tail number (where X=F G I) to get the X, simply because on a G you can have any YYYY.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
Is it valid to state that if an aircraft ID begins with one of these Nationality codes, the full registration will be five characters or it is invalid?

I do think so, yes; but to be sure one would have to get confirmation from the various national authorities, which might be tedious to get. Doesn’t ICAO impose a minimum of five characters in any registration?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Jan_Olieslagers wrote:

Doesn’t ICAO impose a minimum of five characters in any registration?

Maybe, but if it does, then the US doesn’t comply. We can have N1 to N99999, N1A to N9999Z, or N1AA to N999ZZ. However, I hope UK, France, and Italy do comply.

KUZA, United States
if it does, then the US doesn’t comply

Nothing new there… more’s the pity.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

Peter wrote:

So, if this what you are looking for, you can’t validate a X-YYYY tail number (where X=F G I) to get the X, simply because on a G you can have any YYYY

What I am trying to invalidate is X-yyy where all 3 y characters are alpha and X is F, G or I, that this combination can be determined to be invalid. It is invalid because you need yyyy not yyy.

The reason is because of Canadian filers that don’t use their full registry ID which begins with a C-Xyyy and just file using Xyyy where X is an F, G or I. I want to reject these as invalid. They are invalid because they are not 5 alpha characters. I don’t care about numbers, since the Canadian Registry only uses alpha from this set:
CFyyy
CGyyy
CIyyy

Last Edited by NCYankee at 09 Apr 16:35
KUZA, United States

What I am trying to invalidate is X-yyy where all 3 y characters are alpha and X is F, G or I, that this combination can be determined to be invalid. It is invalid because you need yyyy not yyy.

That will work. F/G/I are always followed by four letters. Actually I think all European single-letter prefixes are, but I am not sure. The two-letter ones seem to be followed by three letters (9A=Croatia):

then the US doesn’t comply

US aviation predates ICAO by some decades

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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