EAA Sport Aviation - March 2011

to display N numbers at least 2 inches high. So if you’re restoring an older homebuilt (or a standard category airplane) that is at least 30 years old, you can use 2 inches as your minimum height instead of 3 or 12 as discussed above. Further, 45. 22 allows amateur-built aircraft that are replicas of a small U.S. aircraft that are at least 30 years old to also use 2 inches as the minimum height. The FAA considers a “replica” to be a full-size replica of an aircraft, so this doesn’t apply if you scale the aircraft up or down from the original configuration. What this regulation does allow is the use of 2-inch-high N numbers on a number of classic designs that have been around for 30 years or more. I can’t name them all here, but examples that would fit this regulation include Cub replicas, Pietenpols, the Baby Ace, and many others. Even some designs that we think of as “modern” homebuilts like the RV- 3 and RV- 4 now qualify for 2-inch N numbers!

LOCATION

The regulations state that the N and any other letters included in the registration mark be “roman capital.” No cursive or script fonts are allowed.

Part 45 also contains other requirements for the N number that are sometimes overlooked. For example,

Note that this “vertical” N number is not uniform in size and is spaced too close together. There’s one more problem with this one: On aircraft with multiple vertical tail surfaces the N number is required to be on the outer surface of the outermost vertical tail surface. Note that this one is on the inner surface of the vertical tail.

beautiful.

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