Piper PA-12
N78463 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 Iliamna, Alaska. The registration is valid: it was issued on July 28, 2017 and expires on July 31, 2027. It holds a standard airworthiness certificate for normal, dated April 11, 1977.
Aircraft
- Maker
- Piper
- Model
- PA-12 · all PA-12s and related versions
- Serial number
- 12-1974
- 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
- AAA2A8 (octal 52521250)
Registration
- Status
- Valid registration
- Certificate issued
- July 28, 2017
- Expires
- July 31, 2027
- Last FAA action
- March 4, 2023
- Airworthiness
- Standard · Normal · April 11, 1977
- FAA region
- Alaskan
- FAA record id
- 00214910
Owner as the FAA publishes it
- Name
- Hedges William P
- Type
- Co-owned
- Address
- PO Box 144
Iliamna, AK 99606-0144 - Co-owners
- Hedges Shelley J
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 N78463, 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 Hedges William P, a co-owned, certificate issued July 28, 2017, expires July 31, 2027. No fractional interest recorded. [1]
The airworthiness certificate on file is dated April 11, 1977, 30 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 12-1974 for this model in the deregistered file. [2]
No other airframe has carried N78463 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 N78463: Accident on September 5, 2011 at North Pole, AK: 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: Piper PA-12 · operated under 091
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during takeoff, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and collision with the water.
Full record in plain English · Docket and reports at the NTSB
- 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