Bell OH-58A
N153SA is a Bell OH-58A, a rotorcraft with turboshaft engines (a helicopter or multicopter), built in 1968. It has 4 seats. It is registered to an individual in West Branch, Michigan. The registration is valid: it was issued on September 5, 2008 and expires on April 30, 2028. It holds an experimental airworthiness certificate for exhibition, dated May 9, 2003.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Bell
- Model
- OH-58A · all OH-58As and related versions
- Serial number
- 68-16711
- Type
- Rotorcraft
- Power
- Turboshaft, 1 motor · Allison 250-C10D · 317 hp
- Seats
- 4
- Year built
- 1968
- Cruising speed
- 112 mph
- Transponder code
- A0D6E5 (octal 50153345)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- September 5, 2008
- Expires
- April 30, 2028
- Last FAA action
- May 5, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Experimental · Exhibition · May 9, 2003
- FAA region
- Great Lakes
- FAA record id
- 00386381
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Hodges Terry A
- Type
- Individual
- Address
- 1550 Driftwood Ct
West Branch, MI 48661-9381
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.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N153SA, 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 Hodges Terry A, an individual, certificate issued September 5, 2008, expires April 30, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated May 9, 2003, 35 years after the 1968 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 68-16711 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N153SA 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 N153SA: Accident on May 20, 2020 at West Branch, MI: 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: Bell OH-58A · operated under 091
The pilot's failure to maintain rotor rpm during a precautionary autorotation, which resulted in a hard landing. Contributing to the accident was the airframe vibration for reasons that could not be determined because examination of the helicopter revealed no anomalies.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for CEN20LA187 for the docket and final report. Open CAROL
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 2, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- NTSB aviation accident database (CAROL), records through August 27, 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 2, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data