Fitch HP-18
N77BF is a Fitch HP-18, a glider with no engine, built in 1977. It has 1 seat. It is registered to an individual in Venice, Florida. The registration is valid: it was issued on September 26, 2007 and expires on April 30, 2028. It holds an experimental airworthiness certificate for racing; amateur built; exhibition, dated July 18, 1980.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Fitch
- Model
- HP-18
- Serial number
- 48
- Type
- Glider
- Power
- None · None NONE
- Seats
- 1
- Year built
- 1977
- Cruising speed
- 60 mph
- Transponder code
- AA66CD (octal 52463315)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- September 26, 2007
- Expires
- April 30, 2028
- Last FAA action
- May 5, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Experimental · Racing; Amateur built; Exhibition · July 18, 1980
- FAA region
- Southern
- FAA record id
- 00463427
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Eckels Richard E
- Type
- Individual
- Address
- 151 Field Ave E
Venice, FL 34285-3800
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 N77BF, 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 Eckels Richard E, an individual, certificate issued September 26, 2007, expires April 30, 2028. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated July 18, 1980, 3 years after the 1977 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 48 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N77BF 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 N77BF: Accident on May 10, 1982 at Hazelton, PA: 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: Bryan HP-18 · operated under 091
Search the NTSB's CAROL system for NYC82DHA09 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