Narrative:

Upon completion of preflight; my first officer informed me that our aircraft was lacking textual [lettering] rvsm area markings. He also informed [me] that several months ago he had encountered a similar situation and had been told by maintenance that these markings were not required. However; the first officer showed me photos of the B767 parked at the gate next to us. That airplane had those [rvsm] markings. We inquired maintenance regarding the legality of this; and were told we better make a write-up. The mechanic who showed up in the cockpit was not certain if this was deferrable. Instead of deferring this item; maintenance literally brought out a ladder and a marker pen and by hand added the text to the sides of the aircraft. Given this; it seems to me that perhaps this text is indeed required for dispatch in rvsm airspace? If so; I and countless other company pilots may have inadvertently been flying B767s and/or B757s in our air carrier fleet that are missing required markings. Since I rarely do preflights; I do not know if I have flown such aircraft. I do know that I have flown this particular aircraft in recent past. However; I obviously do not know if this aircraft; at that time; was lacking these markings. Therefore; I am filing this report as a disclosure that I today found out that I may; or may not; have flown company aircraft inadequately marked and possibly illegally dispatched.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B767-300 Captain was informed by First Officer their aircraft was lacking textual RVSM area markings. Questions with Maintenance; whether or not the RVSM area markings were deferrable; or required for dispatch; remained unclear.

Narrative: Upon completion of preflight; my First Officer informed me that our aircraft was lacking textual [lettering] RVSM area markings. He also informed [me] that several months ago he had encountered a similar situation and had been told by Maintenance that these markings were not required. However; the First Officer showed me photos of the B767 parked at the gate next to us. That airplane had those [RVSM] markings. We inquired Maintenance regarding the legality of this; and were told we better make a write-up. The Mechanic who showed up in the cockpit was not certain if this was deferrable. Instead of deferring this item; Maintenance literally brought out a ladder and a marker pen and by hand added the text to the sides of the aircraft. Given this; it seems to me that perhaps this text is indeed required for dispatch in RVSM airspace? If so; I and countless other company pilots may have inadvertently been flying B767s and/or B757s in our Air Carrier fleet that are missing required markings. Since I rarely do preflights; I do not know if I have flown such aircraft. I do know that I have flown this particular aircraft in recent past. However; I obviously do not know if this aircraft; at that time; was lacking these markings. Therefore; I am filing this report as a disclosure that I today found out that I may; or may not; have flown company aircraft inadequately marked and possibly illegally dispatched.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.