I take that one back 
It’s interesting they pulled that off under the nose of (with the co-operation of, one assumes) the Italian government. IOM, Jersey, Guernsey did not manage to do that.
Still leaves the other two however.
The difference could be that although IOM, Jersey and Guernsey are self-governing, they are not independent states, which San Marino is.
The strange thing is not that San Marino has an aircraft registry, but that IOM has!
for my G reg Scottish Aviation Bulldog as I have to employ engineers from UK to visit Spain to sign out the Annual inspection and the three year airworthiness inspection is a pain!
I don’t think this is needed at all. You can have your maintenance done in Spain from a Spanish engineer and send the paperwork to UK CAA.
There are a few Germans doing it this way. I think the engineer needs to contact CAA to just check his maintenance licence. That’s it.
Has anyone experience of putting a N-reg aircraft on the Guernsey registry?
VAT-free import and upgrading avionics? Maintenance regime similar to N-reg?
Does the owner(s) have to be Guernsey resident?
There’s plenty of info on the ’net, but different outfits publish different criteria.
This may be worth a read.
I think you need to be clear about why you want to do it.
For protection from the EASA FCL N-reg attack, it won’t work if you are UK based, and anyway Brexit should deal with that issue.
For VAT-free work, it doesn’t help because you “should” pay import VAT on the work done after you fly back to the UK.
Maintenance, I don’t know the latest. The IOM quietly abandoned Part 91 and is now forcing Part M. The UK CAA has them over a barrel because they need the UK’s ICAO seat to issue their aircraft and pilot papers. Guernsey is in the same boat as the IOM on this.
However the whole maintenance issue is best addressed by personally managed pro-active maintenance, which is possible on a G with the right contacts. All the time you are having to use a (certain type of) company, you are over a barrel and the letter on the side doesn’t help much.
I would leave it N-reg and get the pilot papers (61.75 and the US Foreign Pilot exam) but that may be too much for some people especially as the exams now need a trip to the USA. A registry move is a can of worms and not for the faint hearted.
Most of the IOM based planes are there for reasons such as taxation (with an IOM company) and confidentiality i.e. concealing the owners identity without using the usual N-reg trustee.
Peter wrote:
Most of the IOM based planes are there for reasons such as taxation (with an IOM company) and confidentiality i.e. concealing the owners identity without using the usual N-reg trustee.
The Isle of Man register has many advantages in terms of a much lower fee base and a lack of bureaucracy compared to the G reg. There’s no disadvantage except the inability to do Public Transport work with the aircraft.
A little bit of trivia, I held Isle of Man Pilots Validation No 1. I’m rather proud of that, even though it means nothing really.
I think there have been recent changes. I had a meeting with the (departing) Director of Aviation there a couple of years ago. With Part M, there is no maintenance advantage. They still validate ICAO pilot papers into IOM ones (for a specific airframe only) and that avoids sitting the 14 EASA exams, etc. No FAA trust is needed, too. He made it pretty obvious that the other attractions would be peripheral – which is not to say they would not be valuable to a high net worth individual, etc.
Which bits did I miss out?
The OP is after Guernsey so this will only give him some pointers, but I also know him and know he is a private pilot and is not going to be operating King Airs etc. I think that narrows down the applicability quite a bit.
When the Jersey and Guernsey registers started, they said they would run Part 91 maintenance and accept ICAO pilot papers, and accept small aircraft even for people not living there (which the IOM did for very briefly, allowing a few to sneak in under the wire, via an IOM paper company, before the IOM pulled a plug on it) but for sure Jersey reversed out of that one and like the IOM went only for the bigger stuff if the owner is non resident. I don’t know about Guernsey and that would be a Q to ask. I bet it is similar.
Neil wrote:
The Isle of Man register has many advantages in terms of a much lower fee base and a lack of bureaucracy compared to the G reg. There’s no disadvantage except the inability to do Public Transport work with the aircraft.
But these days the IOM wants nothing smaller than a CJ4 unless you are a resident.
One thing the IOM said when it was set up, in a question a resident posed “If I sell my aircraft to a non-resident, do I now need to change the reg” (in the context of the ballache to do so) – and they said no, if it was already registered it could remain registered after the sale. I don’t know whether this is still the case, but you could always have a resident register it, “sell it” to you, and keep the M reg if it were.
As an example, I know of an aircraft on the G register that needed approval for an MEL. The UK authority initially wanted £5000 to look at it. The Isle of Man want £500. I don’t know the conclusion of the story.
