Aircraft Data Plate

[dstates]

I'm looking for an aircraft data plate to put near my tail surfaces per 45.11. Does anyone have a suggestion on where to get one? I'd love to get one that looks original, whatever that is...

Also, can anyone share pictures of theirs so if I end up making my own I would have some examples to reference?

Thanks,
Doug

[dstates]

Just to clarify.... I have the original data plate in the door sill. I'm just looking for a placard that would go on the exterior of the plane per FAR 45.11.

[cessna170bdriver]

If you are just looking to fulfill the (9/11 induced) legal requirement, and you still have the original (fireproof) data plate, you can just make a label and stick it on the outside of the airplane somewhere. I made this one on my inkjet printer on Avery clear label,stock, and sprayed it with clear acrylic before applying it to keep the ink from rubbing off.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

There is no "original" exterior placard. As Miles stated, this is a relatively new security requirement. Make what ever you want that meets the requirement. Mine is a piece of aluminum tape that you might use to seal a heating duct. I took a ball point pen and scribed the required info into the aluminum and stuck it on the tail cone under the stabilizer. Aluminum on aluminum, you can't hardly see it, which meets my intent.

[dstates]

Sounds good. Thanks guys.

Doug

[c170b53]

You guys are making me feel insecure here, is this a CBP thing ?
CBP has stated to me, they want your eAPIS number for the border crossing. I probably don’t want to know who they are but it seems like a lot there’s lots of rules and procedures. Decal, passport, pilot’s licence, medical licence, aircraft registration paperwork, eAPIS number, flight plan, sheesh do I need something else ? ADSB , great another thing of no use to me up here.

[3958v]

That little sticker or plate seems totally ridiculous to me any school kid with a cell phone can find a lot more info from a google search on my 24' N numbers. Bill K

[FredL]

If you want to get fancy, you can buy the blank data plates from aircraft spruce and have a trophy shop laser engrave it for you.

[GAHorn]

The requirement to identify the aircraft with an external placard precedes the events of 9-11. The historical FARs indicate the rule existed since Dec. 1987 which requires that a fireproof placard must be placed by the mfr’r or subsequently by the owner/operator at the rearmost entrance/port side of the aircraft. This is met by the Cessna factory dataplate which is found on the left door-sill. In addition, an external placard must be displayed on the fuselage at the rear/tail area which repeats the model and serial of the aircraft. That external placard is not required to be fireproof and many aircraft display the information with paint or stick-on label.
My imperfect memory recalls seeing it required as early as 1974 on aircraft I flew which crossed the U.S. border and regulations additionally required external identification of any internal fuel tanks.
My airplane’s paint job incorporates the info beneath the left horiz. stab and I seen a number of airplanes that simply used a Dymo-placard (plastic tape placard). Spruce also offers a version.

[cessna170bdriver]

If you want to get fancy, you can buy the blank data plates from aircraft spruce and have a trophy shop laser engrave it for you.

That’s a non-starter for me, I wouldn’t add any holes in the fuselage unless absolutely required.

[cessna170bdriver]

The requirement to identify the aircraft with an external placard precedes the events of 9-11...

Thank you George. Now that you mention it, I do seem to remember (the remnants of) a Dymo label I think applied sometime in the 90s.

[gfeher]

My plane has both the original data plate in the door sill and a second (later?) data plate on the left side under the horizontal stab. So I haven't thought about this until this thread. I see where the original data plate in the door sill suffices for our aircraft since they were manufactured before March 7, 1988. It's at 14 CFR 45.11(e). But where does it say the second data plate at the tail is required? Just curious as I couldn't find it.

[c170b53]

I like it Bill., I was first surprised when I googled my registration to find pictures of my plane and some not too bad !
I never knew this second decal was a requirement and it’s never been mentioned in cross border operations from AOPA / COPA as far as I know.
Flying in the states is the best so I have to comply with whatever is needed to fly. Just hoping uAvionix’s SkyBeacon X is made available ASAP https://uavionix.com/testing-sbx/.
Until then seems I’ll be visiting the small spots, really small town America have been some of the best stops.
Unfortunately for those heading North, the MOT is making 406 ELTs mandatory rumblings again.

[GAHorn]

My plane has both the original data plate in the door sill and a second (later?) data plate on the left side under the horizontal stab. So I haven't thought about this until this thread. I see where the original data plate in the door sill suffices for our aircraft since they were manufactured before March 7, 1988. It's at 14 CFR 45.11(e). But where does it say the second data plate at the tail is required? Just curious as I couldn't find it.

The mfr data plate does not have to be inside the aircraft but most do so for several reasons of protection of that plate from damage/theft. Since it’s inside... the model/serial must also be placed somewhere outside the aircraft according to the rule. This regulation complies with IATA (Int’l) rules also, it’s not just U.S. alone. Here’s the FAR:

FAR 45.11 (e) Aircraft manufactured before March 7, 1988. The owner or operator of an aircraft manufactured before March 7, 1988 must mark the aircraft by attaching the identification plate required by paragraph (a) of this section. The plate must be secured at an accessible exterior or interior location near an entrance, if the model designation and builder's serial number are also displayed on the exterior of the aircraft fuselage. The model designation and builder's serial number must be—
...
(2) Located either adjacent to and aft of the rear-most entrance door or on the fuselage near the tail surfaces,



It’s my recollection (i’ve slept since then) that this rule was created in the early 1970’s out of necessity to comply with Customs requirements so that Customs Agents could complete their activities when documenting aircraft on the ramp without requiring access to aircraft interiors. This was necessary to determine import/export of airframes.

As chief pilot of a U.S. corporation back in the 1980s my flight dept acquired a new-to-us HS-125 to add to our existing fleet. The Hawker-Siddeley field rep came to help us inspect it for acceptance and he noticed there was no fireproof data tag on the aircraft. (I hadn’t noticed it as Hawker typically placed it inside the cockpit, forward of the baggage-compartment/vestibule, below a C.B. Panel behind/below the co-pilot seat. (That location technically met the rule without the metal plate distracting from the plush interiors of most corporate jets. It also met a British requirement that placed it within view of the Airworthiness Certificate which had to be visible to a boarding passenger as well as the PIC at his station. For this reason I simply never paid attention to it, but Maurice Helmore caught that it was missing completely.)

I imagine the latest shop that installed the new leather interior of the airplane had removed the datatag in order to cover the panel in leather and then simply failed to reinstall the official “Created by Hawker-Siddeley and blessed by the Queen” complete with Company Logo and Lion-and-Shield Heritage data plate. I was horrified to think of the “bureaucratic heaven-and-earth-across-the-Atlantic” I was about to have to go through to obtain a replacement so the boss could take his family on vacation next week in the new airplane. I mean, Maurice was a former Royal Marine flight-engineer on Mosquito’s in WW-2 and I was pretty sure he was going to make me run the gauntlet through Parliament and Whitehall before I saw another data-plate for this “aeroplane”.

Anyway, this was the correctice-action: As representative of the mfr’r and the British Civil Airworthiness authorities.... Maurice was quite happy when I went down to a local jeweler and had them cut out a stainless steel plate 3” X 4” and engrave “HS-125-3ARA, Serial 25148” upon it and then pop-rivetted it in place below the circuit breakers with no further documentation or ado. It was a plain, ordinary piece of metal-sheet that looked less-official than some of the Continental engine tags we’ve seen. Not even a log-book entry. We were suddenly airworthy again.

You can’t make this stuff up and you never forget it when it happens.

[gfeher]

Thanks George. I'm not sure why I missed that when I read 45.11(e). Good story too. I love it when a solution is simple.