"UNKNOWN" aircraft

[Florida Metal]

Do you know if powered parachutes carry registrations? I am sure various companies build them except they all look alike to me other than their variety of colors.

Or would they carry some sort of other registration in the US other than the typical N number?

I was under the impression that ultralites under a certain weight don't carry registrations as some of the ones that I was taking pictures of at Sun And Fun I looked all over them in various places and could not see a registration for the life of me.

I was next to some of the planes and looked under, above on both sides and couldnt find anything that resembled a registration.

Now trikes are very light ultralites and have caught registrations off of them.

I never knew hot air balloons carried registrations until a couple years ago, but they are nearly impossible to get as I mentioned earlier as they are often very small print and on only one side of the balloon so if it doesn't face you, you don't get it

As for what Malcolm said about museum planes, most of the major museums list their planes on their website with their tail numbers and there is a good chance that someone here has the tail number and profiles already made. I can pretty much credit Glenn Chatfield for most of the US Wright Pat AFM info since he has been there a million times and has pretty much a picture of every plane they ever had on display and I believe he probably posted 98% of the planes profiles on here, I think I posted only 1 or 2 AFM profiles that Glenn actually didn't see that are newly displayed planes this past year. But the AFM also has a list of their aircraft with serials on their website in PDF form.

Now I haven't been able to get a lot of the planes registrations from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn MI, I still haven't posted those pictures I took back in 2009.

As for what Malcolm said about this:

".. and how difficult is it to spare an extra digital image to catch the reg?"

Unfortunately it sometimes is -

A. The plane is parked at an airport with its own wing/engine blocking the reg, and you are behind a fence and can't get that plane at that angle or from any other possible way to get the reg - such as if the plane is facing you.

B. on some planes the reg is so smal or camoflauge like on some warbirds (to keep authencity) that you have to walk right up to the plane and get a shot of it from 5 ft away - definitely can't see it in flight even if the plane is close by you landing.

C. The same applies for some military regs that I have noticed on some T-1s and Texan IIs that have very tiny serials with print that is less than an inch tall.

D. Some aircraft while flying even in a 45 degree angle from ground are hard to get - American MD-80s come to mind, the regs are right above their rear engines and are hard to sometimes get - you pretty much have to get a side view shot to get them, the same also applies to biz jets flying in on approach at about 500 ft up or more such as C550s, C560s and some Falcons that have their regs on the tail right above their stabalizers

Most of my digital issues with unknown (other than balloons and ultralites) are planes that were taken from a certain angle where I couldn't get the reg. I am looking through my collection of pictures to see if I got that plane again somewhere.

[Malcolm Clarke]

Good morning Daniel.

Regarding ultralights, I recommend your putting ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultralight_aviation#United_States

... into your web browser and you will immediately realise how complex a subject this is and how the differently they are treated by the regulatory authorities around the world.
My understanding is that in your country an ultralight has a maximum weight, not including the pilot and fuel, of 254lbs and is not required to display any form of registration number.
Someone such as Doug Robertson would be able to provide a more definitive description, particularly in respect of your own national requirements..
This does indeed make recognition difficult in certain circumstances but such aircraft most often operate from small airfields and don't tend to travel long distances and the opportunity to obtain information from the operator is frequently possible. Each will undoubtedly have a manufacturer (even as a home build) and a model name/type and these would be sufficient to raise an appropriate profile. So you need to ask, as Chris has said an unidentified image is of very little or no value and as I have implied, it really is down to the photographer to do all he/she can to obtain such information.
Other than my own small library of aviation books, I rely on the internet which we all have access to these days.

I absolutely agree with you regarding the circumstances under which it may be difficult if not impossible to obtain a registration but sadly, you must be prepared to accept that the resultant image may not be of interest to a website.

I think Chris makes a good point. The site should be prepared to carry an unidentified image for a period of time in the hope that someone will come forward with the necessary details, but subsequently, unless there is something very special about it, it should be deleted.

BUT ... please, anyone reading this, don't upload an unidentified image before having done your very best to find the details yourself, but ultimately the Admin team will help and the forum would be a better place to sort out such matters.

Malcolm.