Kanarie wrote:This does not work for the ultralights (F-J*** registrations). Still looking for a site where to get info on french ultralight registrations.
Grtz
Arjen
Short answer: Google
Long answer: as I explained before, there is a certain risk in writing down the F-J*** "registration" as official, even though it might be displayed on a French ultralight. The F-J*** identification belongs to the owner of the aircraft (more precisely: it's his radio callsign), not to the aircraft. If the owner changes aircraft, the F-J*** callsign follows him (like in Belgian car registrations). Thus, you have to know exactly at what point in time the F-J*** was tied to a particular aircraft in order to identify the aircraft. So, when you see F-JAAA in august, and the aircraft that carries this callsign is positively identified in october, you can only be sure that it is the same aircraft if you have checked the c/n! If the owner in the example above changed aircraft in september it will be a completely different aircraft even though it's "registration" is F-JAAA in both cases
The "true" registration of French Ultralight is the combination of two digits, followed by one, two or three letters. This is mostly painted on the underside of the wings and sometimes on the tail or on the fuselage. The two digits stand for the departement in which the owner of the aircraft lives (the same codes apply to the French car registrations) and the letters are the individual identifiers. Yet there is a catch there too: if the owner of -say- "01-AA" moves to another department -say: "59", he has to change the registration of his aircraft to "59-**"(whatever is next in line in that particular department). So, there too, things are very confusing and you have to make sure you have the most recent information.. I myself use Air Britain's European Registration Handbook, but that is only partially complete. Complicated? Very much so! But then again, as the French say, C'est la vie...!