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Thread: Homebuilts Deregistered in 2018

  1. #1
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Homebuilts Deregistered in 2018

    About ten years ago, the FAA instituted a mandatory re-registration process for aircraft owners. Every three years, owners have to re-register their aircraft. If they fail to do so, the aircraft's registration is cancelled.

    This has always had a big effect on the homebuilt ranks...in fact, in the first cycle of the process, almost a quarter of the homebuilts were removed from the FAA registry.

    The number has been rising again... it was up to 2700 in 2018, which was a tenth of the entire fleet.

    What was interesting was the *types* of homebuilt de-registered. I had expected a lot of older designs...projects never completed, planes scrapped years ago, etc. But there was a surprising number of "modern" kit aircraft in the mix as well.

    Here's a summary of the planes de-registered in 2018:
    Aircraft Type
    # Deregistered in 2018
    Avid
    51
    Baby Ace
    33
    Bede
    21
    Bensen
    53
    Bowers Fly Baby
    20
    Challenger
    93
    Glasair
    38
    Glastar
    32
    Kitfox
    111
    KR-1/KR-2
    33
    Lancair
    57
    Midget Mustang
    28
    Monnet (Except Sonex)
    42
    Murphy
    20
    Pietenpol
    32
    Pitts
    68
    Rans
    63
    Rotorway Helicopters
    73
    Rutan Designs
    92
    Searey
    21
    Sonex (Including Waiex)
    32
    Steen Skybolt
    25
    Stits
    19
    Stolp Starduster
    29
    Thorp T-18
    19
    Vans (All)
    214
    Velocity
    17
    Zenair
    98
    The types shown are basically from a "rough cut" of looking at the registered make and model and identifying the more-common name for the aircraft. There are probably more in most of the types.

    This data is from the January 2019 FAA database.

    Ron Wanttaja
    Last edited by rwanttaja; 07-11-2019 at 12:07 PM.

  2. #2
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    Like you, I too am surprised by some of the "modern" kitplanes/homebuilt types and their high numbers on this list. Glastars, Glasairs, Lancairs, Rotorways and the very serious Velocity. Most of these are complex composites so I wonder if these are mostly made up of projects never completed?

  3. #3
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Floatsflyer View Post
    Like you, I too am surprised by some of the "modern" kitplanes/homebuilt types and their high numbers on this list. Glastars, Glasairs, Lancairs, Rotorways and the very serious Velocity. Most of these are complex composites so I wonder if these are mostly made up of projects never completed?
    Note that the list is only of those aircraft deregistered in 2018. There are 148 Velocities listed in the overall cancellation list. All these aircraft are recorded as having airworthiness certificates, so they should, TECHNICALLY, have been flyable aircraft. I have noticed some problems with the records, though.

    Here's the list of Velocities whose registrations were canceled in 2018, along with their "Manufactured Date" (which may or may not accurately reflect the year the aircraft was completed). Most are at least ten years old.
    N#
    Registration Make
    Registration Model
    Year
    18KT
    HERNANDEZ ARTHUR J
    VELOCITY RG
    1995
    20PX
    OSHMYAN MICHAEL
    VELOCITY 173FG
    2005
    242JP
    PRUDHOMME JEAN JOSEPH
    VELOCITY RG173
    1994
    24TR
    TROYER TIMOTHY R
    VELOCITY RG
    -
    27GV
    VITTONE JOSEPH
    VELOCITY XL RG 82
    2000
    289AE
    ESPINAL ANTONIO D
    VELOCITY JET 900
    2003
    33SV
    OWENS R WAYNE
    VELOCITY 173
    2000
    389DM
    FRITTS WILLIAM M
    VELOCITY LW/RG
    2008
    4253M
    MAHER D J
    VELOCITY 173
    1991
    444YP
    ADVERTISING MGMT & CONSULTING
    VELOCITY SUPER XLRG5
    2007
    4PE
    MICHALK BRIAN K
    VELOCITY STD FG-ELIT
    2009
    642PT
    WETMORE P L/VALLEE T
    VELOCITY RG ELITE
    1999
    66XL
    EYMANN BERNARD
    VELOCITY XLRG
    2001
    6ZL
    FRANKS ERIK
    VELOCITY XL RG
    2011
    713MR
    BROWN ROLAND L
    VELOCITY 173 ELITE
    2003
    87BR
    BRIM R M/COMPOSITE AERO
    173/RG-EXL
    1998
    951DR
    RIDER DAVID R
    VELOCITY
    2000

    Ron Wanttaja

  4. #4
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    This shows the effect of the deregistration program....
    Year
    EAB
    Net Change
    Deregistrations
    2009
    31914
    672
    464
    2010
    32682
    768
    309
    2011
    33038
    356
    666
    2012
    32041
    -997
    1951
    2013
    27946
    -4095
    5013
    2014
    27909
    -37
    1084
    2015
    28078
    169
    781
    2016
    28830
    752
    225
    2017
    28451
    -379
    1296
    2018
    26572
    -1879
    2767
    Ron Wanttaja

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    That's an alarming decline.
    Do you have numbers for new EA-B registrations last 10 years?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Berson View Post
    That's an alarming decline.
    Do you have numbers for new EA-B registrations last 10 years?
    I'm not concerned about it, because what we're seeing is the effect of a refinement of the registration process. The change in the FAA system provides a more-accurate record of the number of active homebuilts. At the same time, the new process has affected the overall registrations as well. About 2700 homebuilts were removed from the registry in 2018, but about 22,000 Standard aircraft were removed as well.

    With that said, the number of new homebuilts each year does appear to be reducing a bit:

    Year
    New EAB
    EABs Deregistered
    2009
    1136
    464
    2010
    1077
    309
    2011
    1022
    666
    2012
    954
    1951
    2013
    918
    5013
    2014
    1047
    1084
    2015
    950
    781
    2016
    977
    225
    2017
    917
    1296
    2018
    888
    2767
    This can be due to a lot of factors, one of which might be the advent of Light Sport Aircraft...some people who might previously had built an EAB might be purchasing ELSA kits, or even ready-to-fly SLSAs. Another factor could be the economy; remember that the actual REGISTRATION of homebuilt aircraft lags the kit/plans purchase date considerably.

    And of course, interest in aviation may be decreasing due to increased regulation and costs. But there's really not much more than speculation to go on.

    Ron Wanttaja

  7. #7

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    There might some heavy but "near" ultralight homebuilts that are not registering as EA-B for obvious reasons.

  8. #8
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    If the de-registration has the owner contact information, perhaps someone wanting to take on a project could revive these lost souls. Just thinking with my fingers !
    Bob

  9. #9
    rwanttaja's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by robert l View Post
    If the de-registration has the owner contact information, perhaps someone wanting to take on a project could revive these lost souls. Just thinking with my fingers !
    The original sequence of deregistrations probably primarily affected planes that hadn't existed for years. There was no incentive for an owner (or the owner's relatives) to cancel a registration, hence old planes remained on the registry. Since no one was willing to send in the $5 during the first cycle (2010-2013), the planes would be removed from the registry.

    Not completely sure what's happening, now. Planes only remained on the registry after 2013 if someone cared enough about them to actually pay the fee. Yet, we're again seeing a rise in the number of planes being dropped.

    It might be that the owners, faced with the notice for the second demand to re-register the aircraft, finally have realized that they're never going to get "old bessie" flying again.

    It's also possible that the registered owners moved without changing the address in the FAA records. It would seem to me that this would be pretty constant, so we wouldn't be seeing a spike in the 2018-2020 timeframe.

    It's also possible to re-activate a plane's registration; the FAA does not reuse the N-Number for five years. There are usually a number of aircraft that return to the registry after the owners discover theirs was canceled. I'm aware of one airplane on the 2018 list that this has happened to.

    The FAA deregistration list *does* list the last known address of the aircraft owner, so if one wants to give Robert's suggestion a try, it'd be easy enough. I've saved an Excel spreadsheet of the homebuilts deregistered in 2018 at:

    http://www.wanttaja.com/dereg_2018.xlsx

    Ron Wanttaja

  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by rwanttaja View Post
    I'm not concerned about it, because what we're seeing is the effect of a refinement of the registration process. The change in the FAA system provides a more-accurate record of the number of active homebuilts.
    I think it provides more accurate numbers in general. I've know of planes that have been gone for many years but they still showed active on the registry. Now they have been purged and the registered aircraft numbers are more accurate. Now the number of FAA employees per plane is even higher!

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