Cessna 172M
N61657 is a Cessna 172M, a fixed-wing airplane with one motor with a four-stroke engine, built in 1975. It has 4 seats. It is registered to Bell Ornithopters Flying Club INC, a corporation in Eastlake, Colorado. The registration is valid: it was issued on August 13, 2018 and expires on August 31, 2028. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal; utility, dated February 11, 1975.
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Flight history: where it flew in the last seven days · follow it on the live map
Aircraft
- Maker
- Cessna
- Model
- 172M · all 172Ms 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 Cessna 172 Skyhawk 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
- 17264706
- 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
- Four-cycle pistonFAA type of engine code 8 (what powers it, as the FAA classes engines). Every aircraft with this code · All codes, 1 motor · Lycoming 0-320 SERIES · 180 hp
- Seats
- 4
- Year built
- 1975
- Cruising speed
- 108 mph
- Transponder code
- A8082F (octal 52004057)
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 13, 2018
- Expires
- August 31, 2028
- Last FAA action
- June 3, 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 · Normal; UtilityFAA certificate purpose code NU (the kind of airworthiness certificate it flies under and what it is approved for). All codes · February 11, 1975
- FAA region
- Northwest MountainFAA region code S (the FAA regional office that handles the record). All codes
- FAA record id
- 00871396
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Bell Ornithopters Flying Club INC (flying club: its whole fleet and safety record)
- 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 1714
Eastlake, CO 80614-1714
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 N61657 links to the rest of the register
- Cessna 172 Skyhawk 20,680 registered
- Cessna 72,684 aircraft on the register
- Built of aluminium · as the model family is built; the register does not record it per aircraft
- Lycoming O-320 series 27,311 aircraft with this engine series · 180 hp
- Bell Ornithopters Flying Club INC 3 aircraft registered to this organisation
- Eastlake, CO 4 aircraft registered in this town
- Colorado 7,455 aircraft registered
- FAA orders naming the Cessna 172 Skyhawk 88 airworthiness directives
- Failure reports filed on the Cessna 172 Skyhawk 4,219 reports since 1995
- Approved modifications for the Cessna 172 Skyhawk 857 supplemental type certificates
- FAA orders naming the Lycoming O-320 series 29 airworthiness directives
- Failure reports on the Lycoming O-320 series 349 reports since 1995
The whole map of how records connect · these connections as data: /graph/aircraft/N61657.json.
Records check free · 2 to understand · 3 clear
The public federal record on N61657, 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 Bell Ornithopters Flying Club INC, a corporation, certificate issued August 13, 2018, expires August 31, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
Standard certificate for normal; utility, dated February 11, 1975, consistent with the 1975 manufacture year. [1]
No earlier tail number is recorded against serial 17264706 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
N61657 was previously assigned to 1 other aircraft: Interstate S-1B1 (serial 85 (43-2642), cancelled date not given). 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 N61657: Accident on August 31, 2025 at Fort Morgan, CO: fatal, destroyed (1 fatal). 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: Cessna 172M · operated under 091
On August 31, 2025, about 1040 mountain daylight time, a Cessna 172M, N61657, and an Extra Flugzeugproduktions-UND EA 300/LC, N330AN, were both destroyed when they collided midair near Fort Morgan, Colorado. The pilot and safety pilot of the Cessna received minor injuries. The pilot of the Extra 300 was seriously injured, and the safety pilot of the Extra 300 was fatally injured. Both airplanes were operated as Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flights. According to the pilot of the Cessna, he was conducting instrument flight training with the assistance of a safety pilot.…
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- FAA Releasable Aircraft Database, master file, file of October 30, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA deregistered aircraft file (part of the same download), file of October 30, 2026. registry.faa.gov/
- FAA document index: registry documents received in recent weeks, file of October 30, 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 30, 2026. See this record on the FAA site · This record as data