Tail number history shown in flight deck - why?
 

Hi - I noticed that in various flight decks, alongside the current tail number, sometimes an earlier tail number is shown from a previous registration (maybe a previous owner or airline)
My question is - why would the previous tail number be made visible?
(I'm guessing it's so that the aircraft maintenance history can be easily looked up.)
regards
Russell

Glued on too securely to remove without damage ?

Interesting thought, that may be the reason

If the “previous registration” looks like AB-CD, it’s probably the Selcal code?
I’ve never seen a previous registration in any flight deck or cockpit of the several hundred different aircraft I’ve flown.

Me neither. MSN along side the reg but never more than one reg. Where did you see this?

Maybe it was Sel-Call, but I do remember visiting the flight deck of an SAAF 707 used as a refuelling tanker (a long time ago) and there was an original French registration visible, which I was told was from the days that Air France had it in their fleet.

What about 2 registrations on the outside?
I remember a KLM DC-8 with PH-xxx on one side and Viasa YV-xxx on the other.
Not sure how that worked out legally.

Was the above Viasa/KLM DC-8 not a legally shared aircraft in that situation ? I remember seeing it years back and someone explained it as such to me. Wasn't the British Airways/Singapore Airlines Concorde share also following the same form ? I saw it enough times, but might be imagining a 9V- reg on one side.

The old brain cells have come up with PH-DCH but I can't find the Viasa registration. Saw it in 1966 at Schipol when on a school trip to Amsterdam. It was destroyed in a hangar fire in 1968.
Re. the BA/Singapore Concorde, not sure it had 9V registration. I saw it take off at Bahrain at night around 1978. Most impressive seeing the re-heat at night.
The BA/Braniff Concorde was re-registered every time it went through Washington.

OK, false alarm then.

At Channex we had an Electra with G-OFRT painted on and N347HA stuck over the top for test flying in the USA. When we landed after one flight the tape had peeled off on one side revealing the G reg.
The Zantop guys at Macon had also taped GO-FART on the side with while it was in the hangar.

A postie mate of mine is an avid collector of aircraft registrations, anyway a friend of his worked at the airport and knew this, one night there was a ring at the door and when he answered she said she realised he collected aircraft registration numbers and she had some for him, baffled he followed her out to the car and upon opening the boot was stunned to see a great big pile of stencils and stick on registrations that she had collected for him from the closing down paintshop.

Not knowing what to do he scooped them all up, thanked her profusely and took them into the house.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....546ed2c293.png

Consider that liked Nutty!

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....6294492227.jpg
Sorry about photo quality. This is G-BOAD in 1976 but don't know if 9V was shown on the other side

I recall the Cosmic Wind G-AYRJ "Little Toni" also carried its former US reg while being campaigned on the F1 circuit in the 1970s - remember seeing it in the Tiger Club hangar at Redhill (and I believe it's back in the UK now along with "Minnow" so we have all three of the original LeVier Cosmics here to keep Pete Kynsey's "Ballerina" company!)

It remained UK-registered throughout. The Singapore livery was on the port side only. CONCORDE SST : Singapore Concorde Services

It was PH-DCH, with KLM livery on the starboard side, Viasa on the port. It was only ever Dutch-registered and I have never heard of an aircraft legally wearing the registrations of two different countries at the one time.

Witht he mention of SEL-CAl with its aircraft ID plate -does SELCAL still exist in the satellie age or is it a back up system . HF Radio ground stations muct be very very few and far ebtween these days

Yes, SELCAL is still used.
Normal oceanic comms is via CPDLC but HF with SELCAL as a back-up.
SELCAL also available on some VHF frequencies, e.g. Iceland Radio.

Thanks Eckhard,

I did wonder because HF takes a lot of effort for not much reward but it is reliable even if hard to hear. My wife was an operator at Speedbird London back in the late 1970s , Along with more 'individualistic BA Captains there were Texan drawling Braniff pilots and JAL pilots who spoke poor English trying to give position reports as they trekked across USSR. None of them coming across very clearly on the rather aged , even then , SSB HF units