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Reg-

Great shot! Uniquely painted red bird!

The rainbow in the background is GREAT!!!

LOVE IT!!!

This is sort of mundane, but I've always wondered about something. Reg, I notice that you show your airplane as CF-YIL, but Transport Canada lists it as C-FYIL. I come across this all the time, and I'm wondering about the placement of the dash.

I'm sure you don't use the dash in your radio calls, so what's it doing there? Why sometimes after the C and other times after the CF? Does the F stand for French Canada or something like that?

Maybe CF was the original international ID for Canadian registered airplanes, later shortened to just C?

I have to admit being equally baffled by the Canadian postal code system, but that is a subject for a different time.

You figured it out, Royson.

Aircraft registered prior to January 1, 1974 were identified with the Nationality mark CF, followed by three letters for the registration mark.

At one time all civil aircraft were CF-something, then the country indicator became just the C followed by the dash. Now certificated civil aircraft are either CF or CG, with ultralight being CI. Since my bird was brought into Canada as CF-YIL that's how I tend to think of her.

Reinforcing that, in radio calls, we begin with the five-character ident, but usually drop to the last three if the tower does that first. Works, unless your other-letter counterpart is around. I've never run into mine, C-GYIL is a 172M based in Watrous, Saskatchewan.

Sounds similar to the U.S.' old NC designation. We dropped the C, which I think designated a 'civil' aircraft and now use only the N plus numbers.

Don

Not to be confused with the "Navy-Curtis" flying boats, NC-1, 3, and 4, which attempted a trans-atlantic crossing in 1919!

(NC-2 was canabalized for parts for NC-1.)

Atlantic crossing in 1919! [aviation-history.com]

Good question. Many years ago we didn't have as many airplanes so the CF-XXX configuration had enough combinations. Eventually they did run out combinations so they added "G" letter and changed the format from CF- to C-f and C-G as in C-GPSU. For the Ultra-Lite category, Canada uses the C-I designation. I hope this answers any questions. If you do see a Canadian plane today with a CF- designation you know the paint job is more than 30 years old.

Harry Wiebe
Winnipeg
C-GPSU

As I was reading your post your picture and registration looked very familiar. When I went to the Transport Canada website and checked on the history of the aircraft I realized I was right. It came from Lyncrest CJL5. This is my home base and has been for the past 23 years. I also knew the past owners Jim and Russell. The airport hasn't moved and you are welcome any time. This past June we had 6 aircraft from eaatern Ontario stop in at Lyncrest on their way to the COPA Convention in Wetaskawin Alberta. We hosted a BBQ for them and I accompanied them to Wetaskawin. What a blast.

Harry Wiebe
Winnipeg
C-GPSU

Just for the record, From FAR 45.22

ii) The symbol appropriate to the airworthiness certificate of the aircraft (?C?, standard; ?R?, restricted; ?L?, limited; or ?X?, experimental) followed by the U.S. registration number of the aircraft; and

The N denotes a civil aircraft.

I think at one time way back in the past, the C actually stood for "commerical"

Mexico uses an "X" followed by either an "A", "B" or "C". The A being privately owned aircraft, the B being commerical aircraft, and the C being govermental aircraft.

Charles

But the two are linked!

The international conference that first came up with registration numbers for aircraft was ratified in October, 1919. While other countries used 'obvious' initial characters (C=Canada, D=Deutschland/Germany, SE=Sweden, G=Great Britain), the United States used "N" in honor of the Navy boats that had so recently crossed the Atlantic.

Gee, I always thought the N stood for 'Newnited States of America.

Charles