The FAA requires all aircraft registered prior to Oct. 1, 2010, to re-register, and online applications from owners of aircraft registered in October of any year are being accepted through Oct. 31, 2012. Owners of aircraft with October registration should have received a letter from the FAA with a code to be used when re-registering online.
Owners who miss the deadline must register by mail using Form 8050-1a. For aircraft registered in September of any year, the online re-registration period ends July 31, and those aircraft will be grounded after Sept. 30 until the new registration arrives by mail. Owners of those aircraft who missed the online window must use Form 8050-1a to re-register their aircraft. Beginning Oct. 1, the FAA will mail notices for aircraft registered in November of any year; owners can utilize the code it contains to re-register online from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31, 2013.
Noting statistics indicating the possibility of a sizeable increase in lapsed aircraft registrations, the FAA is urging pilots to review this chart for their re-registration schedules, and allow sufficient time for their applications to be processed.