My brother Lucas is going planning to build a Vans RV7A. We thought it would be cool to have a similar tail number.

I downloaded the FAA Aircraft Registration database, which includes all sorts of data but two that I was really interested in:

• Registration Data
• Reserved Registration Numbers

I created a database to contain the information, wrote a quick JavaScript routine to generate all possible N-Numbers according to the FAA rules, and then a query to show us the available numbers. This, of course, was overwhelming. I thought it would be cool to have a 4 digit number, as all 3 digit numbers taken. I also liked Gulf and Mike since they are the only two phonetic alphabet characters that are a single sylable. I also liked double digits, such as 533G or 533M.

This narrowed things down quite a bit, but consulting Lucas, he liked the idea of our tail numbers being the same except for JC and LC being the suffix. So, for example, 533JC and 533LC. So, a quick query and that resulted in quite a few numbers.

My wife, Crystal, then suggested we find a number with significance to the both of us. Birth dates, anniversaries, child hood street addresses, telephone numbers and a million other numbers were consulted. We eventually arrived at 622, our mom’s birth date. Now, to be fair to others, her’s was the only that was available :-)

So, my number is 622JC and my brothers 622LC.