Frequently Asked Questions

Why are no results being returned from my selcal seach?

Likely reasons:

1. You haven't removed the centre hyphen from the selcal (you need to do this).
2. The selcal you are looking for is not currently in the database. Please email me using the 'contact' link at the top of the home page, giving me the selcal, callsign, frequency heard on, date and time and I will try to find out what the tie-up is for you.

 

Why are no results being returned from my registration search?

Likely reasons:

1. The registration you are searching for is not listed in the database, perhaps because it is not selcal-equipped or has changed registration recently. Try searching by cn.
2. You have not entered the registration correctly. All civil aircraft registrations are entered as per the official aircraft registration regulations. Military aircraft are generally entered with the serial that is externally visible. US Forces aircraft are entered with 6 digits and a hyphen, eg. 87-0035.

 

Why are no results being returned from my cn search?

Certain manufacturer's cn's have been given leading zeros. This is because of the way that the database handles data when sorting entries. Below is the list of the cn formats for the various manufacturers. If the cn you are searching for still doesn't return anything then I don't have the airframe in the database and/or because it is not selcal-equipped.

Where the cn doesn't come to the number of digits quoted, add leading zeros until there's enough.

Eg. Airbus A320 cn 2 would need to be entered as 0002 to return it.

* Aeritalia G222 / 4 digits.
* Aerospatiale ATR / 3 digits.
* Aerospatiale C160 Transall / 3 digits (RA04 excepted).
* Aerospatiale Concorde / 3 digits.
* Airbus / 4 digits.
* BAC 1-11 / 3 digits.
* BAe/HS125 / 6 digits, starting with '25'. 5 digits for the old models, starting '25'. No cn's start 'NA'.
* BAe 146 / 'E' followed by 4 digits.
* Beechcraft / 2 letters followed by the numerical cn, no hyphen between the letters and numbers.
* Boeing (all models except C17A) / 5 digits.
* Boeing C17A Globemaster III / 'P' followed by numerical cn.
* Bombardier Challenger 300 / 5 digits.
* Bombardier Global Express / 4 digits.
* Canadair Challenger / 4 digits.
* Canadair CL44/66 / 3 digits.
* Canadair Regional Jet / 4 digits.
* CASA 212/235 / 3 digits.
* Cessna / 4 digits. Type not included in cn.
* Convair CV580 / full cn.
* Dassault Falcon / 3 digits.
* DeHavilland DHC8 / 4 digits.
* Dornier 228/328 (Jet) / 4 digits.
* Douglas/McDonnell Douglas / 5 digits.
* Embraer 120 / 6 digits.
* Embraer 145 / 8 digits (2 leading zeros up to cn 145799 (ie. 00145799). 14500800 onwards in that format).
* Embraer 170/190 / 8 digits.
* Fairchild FH227 / 3 digits.
* Fokker / 5 digits
* General Dynamics F111 / full cn.
* Gulfstream (all models except IAI derivatives) / 4 digits.
* Gulfstream G100/G200 / 3 digits.
* HS Nimrod / 4 digits.
* Ilyushin IL62 / 7 digits.
* Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) / 3 digits.
* Learjet / model (including 'A' if appropriate) followed by a hyphen then 3 digits. Eg. 35A-068.
* Lockheed / 4 digits.
* Piper PA42 / 7 digits (no type suffix).
* Raytheon Premier / see Beechcraft.
* Rockwell Sabreline / 3 digits, hyphen, 2 digits.
* Saab 340 / 3 digits.
* Short Belfast / 'SH' followed by 4 digits.
* Sikorsky S76A / 6 digits.
* Swearingen Merlin/Metro / full cn (no hyphen).
* Tupolev 154 / 4 digits.
* Vickers VC10 / 3 digits.

 

What do all the letters and numbers mean in the 'notes' column?

Letters on their own will be the former known selcal codes for thart airframe, in most recent order.

Info in the square brackets is usually the source of the tie-up. Examples being :

CFP = confirmed from flight plan.
CHF = confirmed on airwaves giving registration mark and selcal.
SCW = report from selcalworld Yahoo group; not confirmed by me.
CBM = heard on airwaves by myself giving registration mark and selcal.
CGR = heard on airwaves giving selcal and registration mark later confirmed from a ground sighting.
CDL = heard on airwaves giving selcal and registration mark later confirmed from a datalink/ACARS report.
BTS = heard on airwaves giving selcal and registration mark later confirmed from the BTS statistics website.
CC = confirmed from cockpit photo.

followed by the date noted.

Other entries in the same column should be self-explanatory.

I've just heard a 'Reach' flight and when I've looked up the selcal code given there are several 'Reach' aircraft listed. How can I tell which one I've heard?

This is a known problem and unless the trip number heard matches the serial of the aircraft then it could be any of the aircraft listed. If, say, you've heard 'RCH7035' with selcal BSAD then you can fairly safely assume that it was serial 87-0035. The 4 figure trip numbers are generally realiable if the selcal matches. If you hear a 3 digit trip number then these cannot be trusted to match a serial - and rarely do.

It is also worth mentioning that the USAF KC135 selcals are shared between 6 or 7 different KC135 aircraft so while the database may only show maybe 1 or 2 KC135's against the code you've heard, bear in mind that there will be another 4, 5 or 6 KC135's that will also be using that code but the reason that they are not listed in the database yet is because the aircraft in question have yet to be confirmed.

 

I've just looked up an aircraft and the registration and operator details are out-of-date. Why is this?

There are just short of 18,000 individual airframes in the database and keeping them all up-to-date is a real mammoth task. I do try to keep on top of the registration and operator changes but I have other commitments and can't spend all my time working on the database I'm afraid. If you spot something which is out-of-date, email me using the 'contact' button on the home page I'll change it straight away.

 

Can I download the database?

No. That option is not offered. Mike Griffiths at www.selcal.co.uk has a downloadable database.