Changes to aircraft registration marks

[Greg Hyde]

Casa announced

Aircraft registration marks in Australia are changing to include a new alphanumeric system.

We use the VH Australian Nationality Mark followed by 3 alpha characters. Soon we will be introducing a 3-character alphanumeric combination such as VH-2AB, VH-A9B, VH-A22.


Introducing a 3-character alphanumeric system will mean the availability of more than 20,000 additional marks.

This will give us enough marks for at least another 30 years.

This supply maintains the current look of the registration mark and allows for sequential reservations and selective individual marks.

https://updates.communication.casa.g...d51776d958ec1a

[Alex Ch]

This is a logical and simple solution to the problem of running out of regos.

I had been thinking about what Qantas might do for future new types such as A350s and A320 family given there are virtually no 'blocks' of registrations left for sequential regos.

This announcement does solve that although I would still hope that Qantas might register its new aircraft with a nod to its heritage by re-using previous rego blocks. The A350s could be VH-EAx or VH-OJx perhaps and the new A320 family could be VH-TAx and VH-TJx

These are now used by other private operators but I'm sure would be transferred over with the right incentive from Qantas!

[Brenden S]

It would be a lot better if Australia went to a 4 letter system. Then you will have more then enough registrations to last many more than 30 years.

[David C]

Originally Posted by Brenden S

It would be a lot better if Australia went to a 4 letter system. Then you will have more then enough registrations to last many more than 30 years.

I agree . I see confusion over the radio with for example VH- N22 , if the pilot transmits “ November Two Two “ , it could be mistaken for a US reg. Perhaps adopting the Canadian system may have been a better plan .

Dave C

[Bob C]

I recall reading several years ago that when a four digit system was first suggested, CASA spun their wheels out because their systems would be unable to cope. I don't know how true that was was but I'm sure that's what I read.

[Greg Hyde]

Guys,

It comes down to costs , it is cheaper and faster to change alpha to alphanumeric.

Adding another character would see changes to hardware, databases, reports, webpages ....

Similar to what happened for Y2K.

From an IT perspective it is a major project.

[William.O]

Hey guys,
Just got confirmation that N2CV (PC12NGX) has been changed from N2CV to VH-PCO. PCO was a old Cessna 182 Skylane.

[Greg Hyde]

From CASA

First alphanumeric aircraft registration marks out now

There's more than a Spring change in the air with the arrival of Australia's new alphanumeric aircraft registration marks.

The first release of 1500 new marks went live on 23 September 2022 and was necessary because the existing registration system had reached its limit.

Initially, the new marks will only start with an X or 8, for example VH-8AB, VH-X9B, VH-X22. Marks will not contain the numbers ‘0’ or ‘1’ to avoid conflict with these numbers and letters.

They also must contain a mix of alphanumeric characters – they cannot contain only numbers.

The full complement of marks will be made available over time.

[Greg Hyde]

First of the new style regos are starting to appear on the register:

X9O AMATEUR BUILT AIRCRAFT EXEC 90 3493 11/10/2022
8RP EUROCOPTER DEUTSCHLAND GMBH MBB-BK117 C-2 9448 13/10/2022
8DA AIR TRACTOR, INC. AT-802A 802A-0978 17/10/2022

[Raymond Rowe]

Be better if Gliders and ultra-lights did not have the full registration and were only given numericals. This would free up a lot of regos same with balloons.