Piper PA-12
N3960M is a Piper PA-12, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1947. It has 3 seats. It is registered to co-owned owners in Enterprise, Oregon. The registration is valid: it was issued on April 19, 2023 and expires on April 30, 2030. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal, dated August 15, 1988.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Piper
- Model
- PA-12 · all PA-12s and related versions
- Serial number
- 12-2843
- Type
- Fixed-wing, single engine
- Power
- Piston (reciprocating), 1 motor · Lycoming 0-320 SERIES · 180 hp
- Seats
- 3
- Year built
- 1947
- Cruising speed
- 82 mph
- Transponder code
- A49B77 (octal 51115567)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- April 19, 2023
- Expires
- April 30, 2030
- Last FAA action
- April 19, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Standard · Normal · August 15, 1988
- FAA region
- Northwest Mountain
- FAA record id
- 00433752
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Bales Gregory W
- Type
- Co-owned
- Address
- 65158 Green Valley Rd
Enterprise, OR 97828-1441 - Co-owners
- Bales Velda A
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 N3960M, 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 Bales Gregory W, a co-owned, certificate issued April 19, 2023, expires April 30, 2030. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated August 15, 1988, 41 years after the 1947 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 12-2843 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N3960M 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]
2 NTSB records under N3960M: Accident on May 14, 2022 at Enterprise, OR: no injuries, substantial damage. Accident on May 27, 1994 at Nashua, MT: serious 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 2
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Piper PA-12 · operated under 091
The inadequate maintenance and inspection of the crankshaft expansion plug, which resulted in the separation of the expansion plug from the crankshaft and the subsequent loss of oil and windshield obstruction during departure.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for WPR22LA177 for the docket and final report. Open CAROL
Aircraft on the NTSB record: Piper PA-12 · operated under 137
AIRSPEED WAS NOT MAINTAINED. FACTORS INCLUDE AN INADVERTENT STALL.
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for SEA94LA132 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