The U.S. aircraft register, updated daily
A Bellanca 17 Viking, the same model family as N53CW
A Bellanca 17 Viking like this one, not N53CW itself. Photo: Craig Kinzer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Pictures of N53CW itself may be on Planespotters · JetPhotos · Airliners.net. Operator or owner? Send your own picture.
Registered aircraft · FAA record as of October 27, 2026
N53CW

Bellanca 17-30A

ValidFAA registration status code V: Valid registration. All codesArkansas

N53CW is a Bellanca 17-30A, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a piston engine, built in 1996. It has 4 seats. It is registered to an individual in Higden, Arkansas. The registration is valid: it was issued on May 17, 2016 and expires on May 31, 2029. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal, dated May 23, 1997.

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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map

Aircraft

Maker
Bellanca
Model
17-30A · all 17-30As and related versions
Built of
steel tube, wood and fabric
A 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. The Viking's wings are wood, which is why its inspections matter. This is how the Bellanca 17 Viking 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
96-301024
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 IO-550 SERIES · 300 hp
Seats
4
Year built
1996
Cruising speed
142 mph
Transponder code
A6AE5B (octal 51527133)

Registration

Status
Valid registrationFAA registration status code V (whether the registration certificate is in force). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Certificate issued
May 17, 2016
Expires
May 31, 2029
Last FAA action
August 4, 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 · May 23, 1997
FAA region
SouthwesternFAA region code 2 (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
FAA record id
00096091

Owner as the FAA publishes it

Name
Beitel Theodore C
Type
IndividualFAA type of owner code 1 (who holds the registration: a person, a company, a trust or a government body). Every aircraft with this code · All codes
Address
839 Bondair Rd
Higden, AR 72067-9327

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 N53CW links to the rest of the register

Design
Engine
Place
  • Higden, AR 10 aircraft registered in this town
  • Arkansas 3,496 aircraft registered
Airworthiness

The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N53CW.json.

Records check free · 0 to understand · 5 clear

The public federal record on N53CW, 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.

CLEARRegistration and identity

Valid registration to Beitel Theodore C, an individual, certificate issued May 17, 2016, expires May 31, 2029. No fractional interest recorded. [1]

CLEARAirworthiness certificate

Standard certificate for normal, dated May 23, 1997, consistent with the 1996 manufacture year. [1]

CLEARPrior registrations of this airframe

No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 96-301024 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]

CLEARTail number reuse

No other airframe has carried N53CW according to the deregistered file. [2]

NOTERecent registry documents

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]

CLEARAccident and incident record

No NTSB investigation records located under N53CW. CLEAR means the query ran and returned nothing, not that nothing ever happened. [4]

PENDINGTitle chain, liens and 337 forms

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.

PENDINGAirworthiness directives and utilization

AD compliance against the logbooks and flight-activity reconciliation are researched layers of the full report.

CLEAR the source was checked and shows no adverse findingATTENTION a fact a buyer or lender should understand, often routineNOTE context onlyPENDING covered by the full report
  1. FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 27, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  2. FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 27, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  3. FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 27, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
  4. 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