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Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 23, 2026Waco QCF
N11481 is a Waco QCF, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1931. It has 3 seats. It is registered to Branin Air Service INC, a corporation in Morro Bay, California. The registration is valid: it was issued on December 18, 1985 and expires on April 30, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal, dated January 28, 1998.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Waco
- Model
- QCF · all QCFs and related versions
- Built of
- steel tube, wood and fabricA welded steel-tube fuselage and wooden wings, all covered in fabric: the construction of the 1930s and 1940s, which makes wood rot and fabric age the inspection items. A biplane of the 1920s and 1930s: steel-tube fuselage, wooden wings, fabric covering. This is how the Waco QCF family is built; the FAA does not record construction for each aircraft, and the type certificate data sheet is the authority for this one.
- Serial number
- 3561
- Type
- Fixed-wing, single engineFAA type of aircraft code 4 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- Piston (reciprocating)FAA type of engine code 1 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes, 1 motor · Cont Motor R670-SERIES · 225 hp
- Seats
- 3
- Year built
- 1931
- Cruising speed
- 79 mph
- Transponder code
- A03E99 (octal 50037231)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- December 18, 1985
- Expires
- April 30, 2029
- Last FAA action
- July 28, 2023
- Airworthiness
- StandardFAA airworthiness class code 1 (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). Every aircraft with this code · All codes · NormalFAA certificate purpose code N (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · January 28, 1998
- FAA region
- Western-PacificFAA region code 4 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00711190
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Branin Air Service INC
- Type
- CorporationFAA type of owner code 3 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- PO Box 540
Morro Bay, CA 93443-0540
Owners can ask the FAA to withhold their name and address from public files. When they do, those fields are blank here as well. How that works.
Documents on file 0
No bills of sale, loans or other documents are indexed against this tail number.
Connections how N11481 links to the rest of the register
- Waco QCF 19 registered
- Waco 657 aircraft on the register
- Built of steel tube, wood and fabric · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Continental R670-series 170 aircraft with this engine series · 225 hp
- Branin Air Service INC 1 aircraft registered to this organisation
- Morro Bay, CA 5 aircraft registered in this town
- California 27,610 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Continental R670-series 1 airworthiness directives
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N11481.json.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N11481, read the way a buyer, lender or insurer reads it: FAA registration, prior tail numbers keyed on the serial number, reuse of the tail number, recent registry filings, and the NTSB accident record under this and every earlier registration.
Valid registration to Branin Air Service INC, a corporation, certificate issued December 18, 1985, expires April 30, 2029. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated January 28, 1998, 67 years after the 1931 manufacture year. A re-issued certificate commonly follows export and re-import, a rebuild, or a return to the register after cancellation. The cause is documented in the FAA aircraft records file, which the full report obtains. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 3561 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N11481 according to the deregistered file. [2]
No bills of sale, loans or releases have reached the registry in recent weeks. The index covers only recent filings; older liens are in the records file. [3]
1 NTSB record under N11481: Accident on October 12, 1996 at Big Bear City, CA: no injuries, substantial damage. Details below. [4]
These live in the FAA aircraft records file (every document ever filed against the aircraft) and, for larger aircraft, the International Registry. Part of the full report.
AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.
NTSB records 1
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Waco QCF · operated under 091
the pilot's improper response to a perceived in-flight emergency by abruptly retarding the throttle and failing to properly flare the airplane during the aborted takeoff. The pilot's improper perception of the source of smoke was a related factor.
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 23, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through September 30, 2026. data.ntsb.gov/carol-main-public/basic-search
This automated check reads the public federal record. Nothing here is a legal opinion, an appraisal or a statement about the aircraft's condition; a CLEAR line is a statement about the searched record, not the aircraft.
Source: FAA Civil Aviation Registry, Releasable Aircraft Database, October 23, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data