What year is it? ...the plane, I mean

chipgibson

Hello, long time lurker, member, and first time poster. My son and I have begun the search for an airplane to call our own and forgo the scheduling game that we have been playing with rentals... My plan is to fly with my son more and his plan is to advance his ratings and flight time in hopes of joining the majors... In our search we have used the fantastic information provided by this society's pages along with others including the standard catalog of piper single engine aircraft. Something peculiar has surfaced and I wanted to get the opinions of the forum. Cross checking registration history and serial numbers we have found aircraft, that by the referenced serial number, are either advertised as a year newer, or even, a year older. I can understand that production at the beginning or end of a year group may float either way but piper has significant differences in the year to year numbering schemes. I ask without implication or assumption of a listing being misleading but more so that I assume I am lacking the sage knowledge so often found in these forums. Thanks.

Unit74

What does the FAA say? Also, if the POH is original, you will see the dates in the front matter with the installed equipment list. That’s a pretty good indication of what year Piper built it.

chipgibson

Interesting point on the POH, thanks

Seneca38173

I love the idea of buying a plane to fly with your son. But I've got a little bit of a wait though - mine is in first grade.

Are you referring to what FAA calls "MFR Year," or "A/W Date?" I've always assumed the Airworthiness Date is the birthdate of your plane, and the Manufactured Year is just the suffix from the type certificate under which your particular hull was built. They can absolutely be +/- a year different, depending on what parts kit the factory had on hand at the time it was built.

Bob

chipgibson

Thanks, it is fantastic flying with him! I had the same understanding with regard to A/W and MFR Year and the confusion comes with looking at the airframe serial numbers. It may just be the references I'm looking at for serial numbers. For example, looking at an Archer advertised as a 1976, looking at serial numbers for that year, sources say numbers 28-779001- 607 with 607 aircraft built. The serial number for the aircraft on the FAA registration says 28-7505XXX. Searching resources show that Serial numbers for 1975 production were 28-7505001-05259 (259 built). This is an example , of course, but I have found serial numbers that didn't fall into either listed ranges. Maybe my sources are incorrect or incomplete. Thanks again for the responses.

Seneca38173

Ah, so you're saying if you type in the full serial number, like PA28-8290089, neither year in the corresponding FAA registry entry matches the year the Seller advertises his plane as(?) In this example they're both 1981, and the tail is N80731.

chipgibson

That's it, do you know why that is? I can't even find that serial number in my references.

Seneca38173

I don’t know. But if aircraft listed with FAA aren’t in your database, maybe it’s suspect.

Unit74

Post up the N number and let’s us do some sleuthing.

reyobs1950

My 1980 model Warrior was manufactured in 1979. I register it at FAA as 1979. Note that property tax and insurance is based on the that date.

kentshaw

The FAA provides its database on all the US GA aircraft online available for download. It is in text format but delimited so that it could be imported into Access or another similar database. That has all the information you need by tail number.