On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:58:52 GMT, "Steve Easudes" wrote:

Ron I was curious as to why a airplane would be removed other than being
destroyed in an accident? There sure seems to be a large number being
removed and it doesn't seem like there were that many accidents.

Some were N-Number changes...there are about fifty cases of an owner of a
homebuilt in 2003 now owning the same model of homebuilt in 2004 with a
different N-Number. If the airplane changed hands and the new owner changed the
N-number, it's more difficult to tell. There are about ~190 instances where an
airplane on the 2003 register and not on the 2004 register share the same serial
number, but a lot of those are serial # "1" or "01" or "0001".

Putting my feet to the fire, I'd say about 150 of the homebuilts dropped off the
register probably changed N-Numbers.

The registration database also has a field that indicates the registration
status of the aircraft. Of the 432 planes on the 2003 roster that aren't in
2004:

About 60 are indicated as "Sale Reported"

About 70 are indicated as "The Triennial Aircraft Registration form was mailed
and has not been returned by the Post Office"

About 18 are indicated as "A second attempt has been made at mailing a Triennial
Aircraft Registration form to the owner with no response"

There were 193 homebuilt accidents last year, but not all them were totals, and
even then they often are not removed from the rolls.

Ron Wanttaja