Register #387 | A numbers revolution

This issue, numbers debut and a PC-7 that flew for the South African Air Force

After 100 years of Australia issuing conventional registrations to aircraft — International prefix VH- plus a three-letter combination, a new system began on 23 September including letters and numbers. With only around 40 registrations unallocated or unreserved left to use in the old system, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has released a new system to be used alongside the existing one using a three letter/number combination starting with 8 or X. This will allow for around 1,500 new markings after which further blocks will be available. The first of these new style registrations are listed and are 8DA, 8RP and X90 — the latter being an appropriate marking for a Rotorway Exec 90.