UNID VH8AN

[Sketco]

CALLSIGN VH8AN (VH-8AN?) Coded as Military left Wick today 23 june at 12:00.

Intelfrog on twitter notes it left Vero beach florida on 21 june. Seems to have made 3-4 hour hops to get here.

LAAS corporate turbo register lists it as an  Piper pa-46 500tp meridian.
Anyone want to have a stab at positively id'ing this one?

I suspect a military (Australian) miscoding and it's actually a ferry flight of some sort (listed only 5 times in my log of 13 years).

insights would be appreciated.

[Sketco]

Definitely a miscode as Military.
AustAirData list it as registered to "Welding Guns of Australia Ltd"  (6th June 2023).
trades as UNIMIG

[Ospreyv22]

VH-8AN P46T c/n4697697 departed Wick en-route to Zurich

That's the only info i have got on it.

Regards

Ian

[DaveReid]

The Mode S code seems perfectly consistent with others in the VH-8xx range, so I don't see any grounds for concluding that it's either military or a miscode.

[s92driver]

The Mode S code seems perfectly consistent with others in the VH-8xx range, so I don't see any grounds for concluding that it's either military or a miscode.

Dave's has called it spot on IMHO. 

For those who may not be aware, Australia have been using alpha-numeric registrations for a while and that has resulted in them breaking out of their previous civvie ModeS batch of codes (and formula).


Steve

[Sketco]

Thanks Dave,
The only grounds I have for considering it a miscode is that it appears in my VRS as "Military" under civ/mil
The aircraft turns out to be owned by "Welding Guns of Australia" trading as "UNIMIG" hence I would have expected it to be CIVIL under civ/mil.
Intelfrog on twitter also noted this when it left Vero beach Florida, so I was curious.
Later I found it to be a civil aircraft hence I figured it was a miscode of military rather than the civil it turned out to be.

Cheers for coming back

[Sketco]

VH-8AN P46T c/n4697697 departed Wick en-route to Zurich

That's the only info i have got on it.

Regards

Ian

Thanks Ian,
it was a bit tricky finding info on this one initially as it turns out the reg was only completed on 6th June this year.
All sorted now though. Looks like it might be doing the grand tour home lol.
Thanks for coming back, appreciate it.

[Sketco]

The Mode S code seems perfectly consistent with others in the VH-8xx range, so I don't see any grounds for concluding that it's either military or a miscode.

Dave's has called it spot on IMHO. 

For those who may not be aware, Australia have been using alpha-numeric registrations for a while and that has resulted in them breaking out of their previous civvie ModeS batch of codes (and formula).


Steve

Thanks Steve,
I get these showing Civ for Mil with 2-XXX regos in VRS periodically as well.
In this case the information on the a/c was scant and could have gone either way except the tracked behaviour since Vero beach Florida made me wonder.
It will resolve itself now that I know what it is and enter it into the CodeBlock Override in the VRS LocalAircraft.txt file in VRS and recode it as Civil as I do with the 2-XXX a/c
Thanks for replying, I appreciate the input.

[Sketco]

correction to my last re 2-xxx reg . I meant showing Mil for Civ

[VRZ]

There have been many instances of this of late in that Civil aircraft are appearing as Military as the new registraiton formats role out across new civil registrations, ICAO Hex Codes are 'recycled' and DB's need to be updated accordingly.

As another example is VH-8AM. VH-8AM ICAO Hex 7CAC2C, now couple that with VH-8AN which has a ICAO Hex of 7CAC2D.

Currently all Military Aircraft for Australia have ICAO Hex's commencing with 7CF###. The only exception at present is one of our new UH-60M Blackhawks that arrived on the weekend, that one is still getting around with a US ICAO Hex of AE5BB7, but will be changed in due course.

Happy Monitoring Folks.

[Anmer]

Welcome and thanks for that information.  Might need some changes to the Countries.dat file?

[BLACKHAWK101]

Afternoon Gents,

I have added the new VH-8-- by using this, Australia=011111001010xxxxxxxxxxxx,12,Australia.bmp
I think this should cover the latest additions to the VH- register. Please let me know if i have missed any.

Regards
Steve Coulson

[VRZ]

Welcome and thanks for that information.  Might need some changes to the Countries.dat file?

I'd say so. Another one has appeared. That being;
Reg.: VH-8AH
Australia
DB flags: military
Type: C208
CESSNA 208 Caravan

ICAO Hex on that one is 7CA027.

So it's looking like anything with a 7CA### ICAO Hex that were previously lumped in under the Military section needs to be altered to represent civil.

[DaveReid]

Afternoon Gents,

I have added the new VH-8-- by using this, Australia=011111001010xxxxxxxxxxxx,12,Australia.bmp
I think this should cover the latest additions to the VH- register. Please let me know if i have missed any.

Regards
Steve Coulson

Note that the batch of new alphanumeric registrations released in September 2022 includes not only VH-8__, but also VH-X__ - for example PC-12 VH-X56, which uses ICAO24
7878EC