Model, Year and Serials Cross Reference

Many Cardinal owners bump into a problem with the FAA database. They start to get confused about what year Cardinal they have, and wonder who's right about the year: the feds or the service manual?

The problem stems from the fact that aircraft manufacturers are just like the car manufacturers.. they start building the next model year some time before the calender changes. But the Feds are sticklers about year of manufacture, and the airworthiness certificate goes out on the date the airplane rolls off the line. That's the date the feds use.

When I was researching colors I found perhaps 20-25% of the airplanes fit in that gap between model and manufacture year.

So here is a table that will accurately tell the model year of a Cardinal from it's serial number.

Thanks to these Cardinal owners for each contributing a serial number cross reference for their type of Cardinal:

RG numbers
FG numbers
Reims RG numbers (made in France)

Retractable Gear

From: Vincent Endter, vendter@pacbell.net

Model Year	Model	Popular Name	Beginning Serial	Ending Serial
1971	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0001	177RG0212
1972	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0213	177RG0282
1973	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0283	177RG0432
1974	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0433	177RG0592
1975	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0593	177RG0787
1976	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG0788	177RG1051
1977	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG1052	177RG1266
1978	177RG	Cardinal RG	177RG1267	177RG1366

Fixed Gear

From: Duane Allen, aerosol@pacbell.net

Model Year	Model	Popular Name	Beginning Serial	Ending Serial
1968	177	177 or Cardinal	17700001	17701164
1969	177A	177A or Cardinal	17701165	17701370
1970	177B	177B or Cardinal	17701371	17701530
1971	177B	177B or Cardinal	17701531	17701633
1972	177B	177B or Cardinal	17701634	17701773
1973	177B	177B or Cardinal	17701774	17701973
1974	177B	177B or Cardinal	17701974	17702123
1975	177B	177B, Cardinal, and Cardinal II	17702124	17702313
1976	177B	Cardinal or Cardinal II	17702314	17702522
1977	177B	Cardinal or Cardinal II	17702523	17702672
1978	177B	Cardinal Classic	17702673	17702752

Reims (France) Retractable Gear

Year	Starting #	Ending #
1971	F177RG0001	F177RG0042
1972	F177RG0043	F177RG0062
1973	F177RG0063	F177RG0092
1974	F177RG0093	F177RG0122
1975	F177RG0123	F177RG0138
1976	F177RG0139	F177RG0160
1977	F177RG0161	F177RG0177