So I get a text message from Flight Explorer that my airplane is in
flight. Hmmm, my uncle/aircraft partner is still out of town so this
promises to be interesting. Logging onto Flight Explorer, I confirm
that there is indeed an aircraft with my tail number flying only 15
miles north of my home airport (KFRG) over the Long Island Sound. It's
also showing ground speeds comparable to my Warrior.

So now lots of thoughts are racing through my head trying balance the
odds of all these things falling into place (e.g. if it IS a wrong ATC
assignment of a VFR aircraft, what are the chances of it occurring only
15 miles from my home airport? and why would someone steal my airplane
and call ATC with the correct tail number?). However, I manage to keep
my focus on driving the 1.5 miles to the airport for visual
confirmation.

The airplane was there, sitting quietly in it's spot.

Okaaay. I call the NY TRACON on the *small* chance that someone may be
testing out the use of my tail number for some bad purposes. But it
looks like my post-9/11 mindset is the only thing to blame when they
confirm that they have no aircraft with my tail number in the system.

So my dinner was still warm when I got home and another peek at Flight
Explorer shows that the plane in question was now showing the
"corrected" number of N36116 instead of N36616. It turns out N36116 is
another 1978 Warrior based out of New Haven--a mere 40 miles away.

What are the odds? Indeed.

Marco

Now there are two Cessna Skyhawks with the tail number Nxx05U. Mine is
one of them and the other is based at an airport that I very frequently
fly into. On the first occassion tower was only using the last 3
numbers. I replyed that we better use the whole tail number and not get
the wrong assignment.

Marco Leon wrote:

> So I get a text message from Flight Explorer that my airplane is in
> flight. Hmmm, my uncle/aircraft partner is still out of town so this
> promises to be interesting. Logging onto Flight Explorer, I confirm
> that there is indeed an aircraft with my tail number flying only 15
> miles north of my home airport (KFRG) over the Long Island Sound. It's
> also showing ground speeds comparable to my Warrior.
>
> So now lots of thoughts are racing through my head trying balance the
> odds of all these things falling into place (e.g. if it IS a wrong ATC
> assignment of a VFR aircraft, what are the chances of it occurring only
> 15 miles from my home airport? and why would someone steal my airplane
> and call ATC with the correct tail number?). However, I manage to keep
> my focus on driving the 1.5 miles to the airport for visual
> confirmation.
>
> The airplane was there, sitting quietly in it's spot.
>
> Okaaay. I call the NY TRACON on the *small* chance that someone may be
> testing out the use of my tail number for some bad purposes. But it
> looks like my post-9/11 mindset is the only thing to blame when they
> confirm that they have no aircraft with my tail number in the system.
>
> So my dinner was still warm when I got home and another peek at Flight
> Explorer shows that the plane in question was now showing the
> "corrected" number of N36116 instead of N36616. It turns out N36116 is
> another 1978 Warrior based out of New Haven--a mere 40 miles away.
>
> What are the odds? Indeed.
>
> Marco
>

At HPN, one of the flight schools had 3 aircraft that all ended in 8SP.

Eventually they issued "aliases" for students doing pattern work.

They still have two 8SPs, but one of them ran off the runway a week or two
ago, and will probably be OTS for a while...



"Marco Leon" > wrote in news:1152205243.641607.271910
@m79g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

> So I get a text message from Flight Explorer that my airplane is in
> flight. Hmmm, my uncle/aircraft partner is still out of town so this
> promises to be interesting. Logging onto Flight Explorer, I confirm
> that there is indeed an aircraft with my tail number flying only 15
> miles north of my home airport (KFRG) over the Long Island Sound. It's
> also showing ground speeds comparable to my Warrior.
>
> So now lots of thoughts are racing through my head trying balance the
> odds of all these things falling into place (e.g. if it IS a wrong ATC
> assignment of a VFR aircraft, what are the chances of it occurring only
> 15 miles from my home airport? and why would someone steal my airplane
> and call ATC with the correct tail number?). However, I manage to keep
> my focus on driving the 1.5 miles to the airport for visual
> confirmation.
>
> The airplane was there, sitting quietly in it's spot.
>
> Okaaay. I call the NY TRACON on the *small* chance that someone may be
> testing out the use of my tail number for some bad purposes. But it
> looks like my post-9/11 mindset is the only thing to blame when they
> confirm that they have no aircraft with my tail number in the system.
>
> So my dinner was still warm when I got home and another peek at Flight
> Explorer shows that the plane in question was now showing the
> "corrected" number of N36116 instead of N36616. It turns out N36116 is
> another 1978 Warrior based out of New Haven--a mere 40 miles away.
>
> What are the odds? Indeed.
>
> Marco
>

In a previous article, "Marco Leon" > said:
>So my dinner was still warm when I got home and another peek at Flight
>Explorer shows that the plane in question was now showing the
>"corrected" number of N36116 instead of N36616. It turns out N36116 is
>another 1978 Warrior based out of New Haven--a mere 40 miles away.
>
>What are the odds? Indeed.

When I was a student, our club's trainer was N38290. The flight school on
the field had a trainer N3829Z. My CFI talked to the local FSDO, and they
agreed to waive the fee for changing the N-reg because of the potential
conflict with students in such similar registrations in the same pattern.
But the club refused because they didn't want to repaint the aircraft.

The flight school has since closed down and N3829Z has been sold away.
But the other day I heard one of our club members flying our N8439Z and he
continually gave his callsign to ATC as "390". I think he must have
recently moved up from the trainer.

--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"If something's expensive to develop, and somebody's not going to get paid, it
won't get developed. So you decide: Do you want software to be written, or
not?" - Bill Gates doesn't foresee the FSF or Linux, 1980.

> When I was a student, our club's trainer was N38290. The flight school on
> the field had a trainer N3829Z. My CFI talked to the local FSDO, and they
> agreed to waive the fee for changing the N-reg because of the potential
> conflict with students in such similar registrations in the same pattern.
> But the club refused because they didn't want to repaint the aircraft.

For local flying, one can apply for a special callsign.
For example, The Ohio State University Flight School aircraft all end in
OSU. Instead of hearing a constant "zero sierra uniform", the aircraft
have assigned numbers painted on the tail and use that number preceeded
by the callsign "Buckeye".
Now what one hears on the frequency is "Buckeye 35", "Buckeye 11", etc.