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Bell UH-1H
N398M is a Bell UH-1H, a rotorcraft with turboshaft engines (a helicopter or multicopter). It has 15 seats. It is registered to Usda Forest Service Fepp, a government body in Helena, Montana. The registration is valid: it was issued on August 17, 1992 and expires on January 31, 2028. No airworthiness certificate is on file, which is normal for drones and for aircraft still being built or tested.
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Aircraft
- Maker
- Bell
- Model
- UH-1H · all UH-1Hs and related versions
- Built of
- aluminiumThe airframe is aluminium: sheet metal over a riveted frame, the way most aircraft have been built since the 1940s. This is how the Bell UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) 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
- 65-09984
- Type
- RotorcraftFAA type of aircraft code 6 (the FAA's broad category for the airframe). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Power
- TurboshaftFAA type of engine code 3 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes, 1 motor
- Seats
- 15
- Year built
- Not given
- Transponder code
- A4A194 (octal 51120624)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Certificate issued
- August 17, 1992
- Expires
- January 31, 2028
- Last FAA action
- April 14, 2023
- Airworthiness
- None on file
- FAA region
- Northwest MountainFAA region code S (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00383872
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Usda Forest Service Fepp
- Type
- GovernmentFAA type of owner code 5 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
- Address
- C/O Dept of Natural Resources
PO Box 201601
Helena, MT 59620-1601 - Co-owners
- State of Montana / Department of Lands
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.
Earlier use of this number 1
Connections how N398M links to the rest of the register
- Bell UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) 400 registered
- Bell 3,081 aircraft on the register
- Built of aluminium · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Usda Forest Service Fepp 108 aircraft in the fleet
- Helena, MT 536 aircraft registered in this town
- Helena Regional · HLN
- Montana 6,045 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Bell UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) 33 airworthiness directives
- Failure reports filed on the Bell UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) 118 reports since 1995
- Approved modifications for the Bell UH-1 Huey (Iroquois) 31 supplemental type certificates
- Report filed on this aircraft: Bolt, defective · 1996-03-27
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N398M.json.
Records check free · 3 to understand · 2 clear
The public federal record on N398M, 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 Usda Forest Service Fepp, a government body, certificate issued August 17, 1992, expires January 31, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
No airworthiness certificate is on file. Usual for a newly registered aircraft, a project, or an aircraft that has not flown since a change of registration; ask for the certificate. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 65-09984 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N398M was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Travel Air C-4000 (serial 1318, cancelled March 19, 1937). Histories keyed to the tail number alone can mix aircraft up; this check keys on the serial number. [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 N398M: Accident on June 15, 2021 at Townsend, MT: no injuries, destroyed. 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 UH-1H · operated under PUBU
The pilot’s failure to maintain helicopter control after an encounter with settling with power during approach at an altitude that was too low for recovery, which resulted in a hard landing.
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 27, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 27, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 27, 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 27, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data