Several years ago I chose an "N" number for my RV-9A aircraft project and reserved it on the FAA Website. Every year the FAA would send me a post card informing that it was about to expire and I had to "re-up" to continue the reservation. It's only 10 bucks a year. No big deal.

Well, on the third year of renewal I screwed up and didn't send in my renewal and someone in North Carolina beat me to the chase. Damn it! Someone else had my "N" number!

So it became my mission in life to get my "N" number back. I set up a short-cut on my computer desktop that took to me to the FAA "N" number search page, searching only for that specific number. Everyday I made myself click on the short-cut, knowing that when the website came up, the expire date on the number would still be in the future.

So finally, this month the expire date was coming up. I immediately input a request for my old "N" number and sent in my 10 bucks. It took 2 weeks, but finally today I went to the FAA search page, as usual, and I saw that I GOT MY N NUMBER BACK!. Nanny, nanny boo-boo. You snooze, you lose. Do I feel bad for the other guy? What do you think?

Got Comments?