Anyone here done that or has experience with it? Obviously talking about airplanes… 
Of course, most GA airplanes flying around Europe (no, not yours, Peter!) have started their lives in the US, so in theory it should not be too difficult to bring one ‘home’, so to speak. Then again, what is ever easy and straightforward in aviation…
The thinking behind this is that currently the market in Europe appears really depressed, so there may be opportunities. This, btw, is not for business (i.e. resale), but for my own use and it would go on the US register. Any ideas how difficult it is to get a EU-reg airplane on the FAA register? Import duties?
Hi 172driver,
A few years back I sold my C210 to the states. Took the wings off and shipped her in a box. Since the plane had started her life indeed in the states no import duty was imposed. It did take forever (well several days) to get her through the import process in Charleston and I had to follow up with the local agent. My advice would be to talk to a shipping company who’ve done that sort of thing before. It certainly is cheaper (ok – but less fun) than trying to bring her over yourself
This should give you enough food for reading 
You have no way of knowing what a can of worms a given plane might be. I have seen too many cases where somebody sold a plane with some fairly serious issues to somebody and the buyer knew nothing and the logbooks he got contained nothing. I think people who sell planes regard the buyer with the same contempt as people who sell houses or cars (on average – there are many exceptions of course). For example there are TB20s flying now, and some for sale, which are unairworthy because the 12 year crank AD has not been done. So a fair bit of due diligence is needed to make sure the transfer will go smoothly. You can be sure the one thing the DAR will do is an AD check… That’s unless you are getting such a bargain that you can afford to waste it, but that’s rarely the case because the cost of shipping (or a ferry flight) is such that exporting junk is uneconomic.
With my TB20, I saved having to do an Export CofA because I was able to get a letter from Socata which confirmed it met FAA specs when originally built. Yeah, I know, what the hell could such a letter possibly mean, 3 years later? But this is one of the many charades in certification. The FAA DAR accepted it with a straight face. That letter saved a few k.
I would guess any plane originally made in the USA (remember many Cessnas were made in France, etc) ought to not require such evidence – so long as you can show it really was made in the USA.
Straightforward to do and I agree that the US market is strong right now while European used aircraft are trading very weakly. Registration issues depend on how long it has been since export. You need to prove it is as expired or any changes have US certification.
@mrfacts
It certainly is cheaper (ok – but less fun) than trying to bring her over yourself
Is that really the case? Does surprise me a bit, I have to say, after all de-rigging and re-rigging can’t be that cheap, although I admit to not having a clue about the costs involved.
@Jason
Registration issues depend on how long it has been since export
Interesting – got any reference for the timeframes?
@Peter
That’ll be a my good-night reading then
PS: Just in case anyone wonders about the repeated editing – couldn’t get the quotes to work!
Registration issues depend on how long it has been since export
got any reference for the timeframes?
There is no timeframe. The first sentence above is true but is (a) a massive cover-many-possible-things statement and (b) only a part of it.
During an N-reg transfer, the FAA DAR will check many things. The whole plane will be opened up and checked for mods. If some have been done “off the books” (very common under any registry and more especially under EASA) they will have to either be removed or be recertified (I don’t think that a DAR is able to approve a Major mod but an FAA FSDO inspector can, and with the IA they can generate a new 337 to cover it, but this is a can of worms… I know because it happened to me but I was lucky because the DAR was being supervised by an FAA inspector so it could be done on the spot). If he gets suspicious he is quite likely to start checking serial numbers and then you are into another can of worms if there are no logbook entries for the work.
In my case, the dealer the plane came from (Air Touring – now defunct) did some mods which were not logged. This was on a 3 year old plane! So a shortage of time passed is no assurance of anything.
You are very unlikely to find a plane which is say 20-30 years old which is factory-clean.
Obviously it can be done and thousands have done it, but it is a process which needs to be managed carefully and needs to be done by people who are motivated to see it through. Once you de-reg a plane it cannot be moved (except on a trailer) and the motivation to finish the job is small. Been there myself, too… took 8 weeks and only got finished when I took it over (with considerable political risk).
I do have one DAR contact who I have recommended to a number of people and who seems to be good. The guy I used in 2005 is, I believe, no longer around.
If you can buy the plane you want as N-reg, that is a lot easier.
BTW I don’t think values here in Europe are particularly depressed. Good quality examples still go for good money. It is the common lower-end types which are depressed, and many of them have seen years of neglect. Where I am based is a big municipal hangar for which there was always a huge waiting list (years) – because it was full of hangar queens which almost never (or totally never) flew. It amazed me how many people are willing to pay say 4k/year for hangarage after they effectively finished flying. In the last year or so a lot of these owners have finally decided to deal with it and the hangar now has loads of room. But you wouldn’t want any of the planes which used to sit there.
