If you own a plane, you know how important your FAA registration is. Maintaining this registration is important, because it means that you can fly legally. However, sometimes things come up, you get busy and maybe forget, and renewal may just slip your mind. The FAA wants you to get your FAA registration renewal. As they say on their site: “to prompt the owner to renew within the time frames of the schedule and before cancellation of the assignment of the N-Number, the Aircraft Registry issues three automated notices advising owners of the requirement to renew.” In this blog, we’ll go over how the FAA sends notices, what happens if you don’t renew, and how to renew as well as reregister.
FAA Registration Renewal Notices
About 180 days before your registration expires, the FA will send you a notice called “Notice: Expiration of Aircraft Registration.” That title does get the point across. For most airplane owners, it’s been almost three years since you thought about registering your plane. It makes sense that you might forget. This notice is meant to let you know that it’s time to get serious about sending in your renewal, should you plan on continuing to fly your plane. Of course, we can help with this renewal process, as you can go through all of it at our site.
Renewal at the Right Time
The more conscientious of you may have tried to send in your renewal well before this. The FAA wants you to renew your registration, but they don’t want you to send it in too early. So, if you try to send it between roughly seven to six months before the expiration of your registration, the FAA won’t accept it. They will probably send it back to you, along with a note telling you to do so at a more appropriate time. When you receive the first notice (mentioned in the above paragraph) then you know it’s the right time to send that form in.
Right Address for the Notice
You may be reading this blog and thinking to yourself: “it’s less than 180 days till my airplane’s registration expires and I didn’t receive this notice.” Have you made sure that the FAA has the right current address for you? The FAA sends the notice to the most recent address that they’ve been given for the registered owner. So, if you didn’t get the notice, then they probably don’t have your address or there may be a problem with the mail. Of course, we can help with this as well. If you go to our site, on the left portion of the page, you’ll find a form for “Change of Address.”
Updates for Renewal
Sometimes, changes have to be made to your registration for your renewal. For example, if there’s been an ownership change that has to be reflected in the renewal. The same goes for if there’s been an address change, a change in the citizenship of one of (or all of) the owners, or even if there’s been a change in the status of the aircraft itself. While those are dramatic changes, making the changes on your registration forms is easier than ever. At our site, you can find the forms (and the spaces within those forms) to make those changes so that they’re changed in the Aircraft Registry.
When there’s somewhere around sixty days before your certificate expires, then the FAA sends you a second notice. It’s important to note that this is the last notice you get before your registration expires. The form is entitled “Final Notice: Expiration of Aircraft Registration.” This really is the final notice. The phrase “final notice” may have been “watered down” a bit in our society, as it’s used so often in marketing and advertising. Be forewarned though: this is the last notice the FAA will send before your registration expires.
If your registration does expire, then the FAA sends you a form called “Aircraft Registration has EXPIRED – N-Number Pending Cancelation.” The all capital letters of “Expired” is in the actual wording. This form typically comes about a month after your registration certificate expires. You can’t fly your plane at this point; you have to go through the process of being re-registered. By that same token, if you wait much longer, then your N-Number could be taken away.
Don’t let the above happen to you. We can help make the registration process easier than ever, whether you’re renewing or doing it for the first time. Should you have fallen through the cracks, you can reregister airplane at our site as well. We can help you to fly legally for many years and not have to worry about FAA notices. All you have to do is call us at (800) 357-0893 or head to our site.