On 29 September 2008 I took the attached picture of a Jet Ranger flying over New York. Not the best of pictures but it has sparked off an interesting debate which hopefully members here can add to/assist with.

The registration appears to be N32ZA or possibly N22ZA although there also appears to be something under the paintwork suggesting Nx9xA.

N22ZA has pictures in the databse showing it is a Long Ranger in a similar colourscheme. N99ZA is a Jet Ranger in the scheme in on-line pictures from the period although later pictures show it with the colour sweep up the tail that the Long Ranger has. The operator would appear to be ZIP whose titles appear on the Long Ranger and have a later picture on N99ZA on their website. They no longer own either of these aircraft.

I believe my picture to be of N99ZA but that for some reason it has been painted up as either N22ZA or N32ZA. The registration history shows that it was never registered in either of these marks. There appears to be no reservations for change of N numbers at the time. N32ZA has been a Zenair for some time.

Did anyone see or photograph N99ZA at the end of Sptember 2008? Was there anything special happening that would have caused false marks to be painted for photographic reasons?

Does the old reg under N22ZA look like N691S ?

I agree with you that it should be N99ZA, but looks as if its painted N22ZA (long ranger cn 51207 )

Maybe 22ZA was 'temp' marked on for ferry/maintenance flight?

Here is the FAA registry for Sept-2008: for the two numbers

N99ZA Bell 206B cn 2794 AIRHEAD AVIATION INC 99 BAY ST SOUTHAMPTON NY

N22ZA Bell 206L cn 51207 ZIP AVIATION 136 TOWER RD HNGR M WHITE PLAINS NY

John

Hi John,

Thanks for the response.

I see the history of Jet Ranger N99ZA as:

N10EW, N81502, N691S, N99ZA

It is still current as N99ZA.

The Long Ranger history:

N607PD, N22ZA

Again still current as N22ZA. Both appear to be currently for sale through different agencies.

Picture is definitely the Jet Ranger but painted as N22ZA or N32ZA with some evidence of Nx9xA showing through.

I don't see any valid reason for the Jet Ranger to be flying in seemingly false marks belonging to the Long Ranger in September 2008! Ferry/maintence is an interesting suggestion but not convincing as a reason.

I might send Zip, seemingly operator at the time, an e-mail to see whether they respond - one never knows what might emerge...

Pete