France Homebuilt (looking for advice)

AF welcome especially to this EuroGA neighbourhood. Am not sure why you can’t pick up this aircraft on a EASA PPL in France, is there a rule requiring a national licence to fly an F reg homebuilt?

A thirty year Lycoming would need careful inspection, especially if it has had low utilisation. Also it may have been shock loaded requiring a tear down inspection. Crankshaft pitting or corrosion in other components due to low utilisation would be a possibility. The accessories (magnetos, starter, alternator, vacuum pump), and hoses would also need checking especially if thirty years old. The -320 is pretty bullet proof so if a mechanic does a careful inspection it may provide perfectly good service, but effectively on condition.

Very much welcome to this forum – and to Europe as a whole! I am afraid I have (as usual ) more questions for you than I have answers, but I will do my best.

• regarding VAT: so you basically have paid for the plane, and there exists a written sales agreement? What does it say about VAT? If it does not carry certain required information, it might well be void. But you would have to check this with tax specialists in both countries. Mind you, it may make a difference whether seller and buyer are acting as registered businesses or as private persons. In my case, I bought as a EU-registered business from a private person in another EU country, no VAT was due, and I carry a document from the local customs office in confirmation. If this seems complicated: welcome to Europe!

• a point that does not really come up now but inevitably will: on what register do you intend to fly the bird? Keeping the present F-Pxxx (as I presume) might have many advantages, but the seller would have to agree to it, and even then it might not be legal. Again, it would need to be legal both in France and in Austria. Get her on the N-register? Get an OE-xxx? There have been indications here that, for registering an experimental abroad, the PH-register (Netherlands) offers certain advantages.

• Getting her on the N-register might even open the road to IFR – to the envy of some but it is not clear to me if that would be relevant for you

• Regarding the engine, I have little to say. If you are uncertain, get then engine assessed by a knowledgeable person/company, there are a couple of them around here. Frankly, though, such an assessment had been in order before offering your pecuniae.

• The document stating you can cancel the deal if you can’t get the plane on the OE-register may be of little worth: sooner or later you will always be able to register; if the cost is prohibitive, that is not the seller’s problem. If I were him, or of his estate, I would drive that point home ruthlessly.

• The noise certificate should be the least concern – I read more than one report of people brewing their own. But be aware these pushers are noisy but then really noisy.

• Regarding the ELT: we were recently (today?) informed that EASA will soon accept PLB’s instead of ELT’s, which might save you a bit of money and perhaps some hassle.

Welcome to EuroGA, AF

There are loads of issues to consider here.

Is this Cozy N-reg? If so it’s prob99 illegally based in France, which has a limit (6 months?) on any non-F-reg homebuilt, unless certain conditions are met. See e.g. here and here and here

This may open up a can of worms because, if true, it will have been operated in a very low profile manner and flown rarely, maybe not for years. The engine is likely corroded. You won’t be able to tell by listening to it. Virtually nothing (short of a broken conrod, etc ) will be audible outside the engine. 300 hours in 30 years is way outside any plausibly normal usage. Buying it is still OK, subject to a proper prebuy, if you discount the price by an engine overhaul. In fact not doing a prebuy is OK too if you are happy to take a chance on throwing your money away.

Check the Austrian regs on how long you can keep an N-reg homebuilt there. In Germany you can do it for 365 days and then you can apply for another 365 days, and keep repeating that. As far as anyone here has found and posted, no other country in Europe is known to be as generous. The UK for example is 28 days.

Transferring a homebuilt to another registry is usually very hard, within Europe.

If it is F-reg and you want to go N-reg that may be different – @Silvaire may know the process. However very few people transfer Euro-reg homebuilts to N-reg because of the strict residence limits. I am aware of several N-reg homebuilts in Europe but AFAIK none of them were transferred; they were imported from the USA. And only two of them fly in anything like a high profile manner.

The VAT issue may not be a problem if Austria has had a VAT amnesty or has some other statute of limitations. The UK had such an amnesty for example. Also, where was the Cozy made? If it was made in the EU, and you have records proving it was never formally exported (e.g. not been sold to Switzerland, Jersey, etc) then there may not be an issue. This is the situation for e.g. my TB20 (though allegedly French VAT police aren’t smart enough to realise it, which is why I went to a lot of trouble to obtain a certificate of free circulation for VAT).

For an N-reg you can generate your own noise certificate. See e.g. here

Installing an ELT is not a problem.

An N-reg homebuilt would normally not have a VFR-only restriction on it’s certificate, so it can fly IFR in any airspace where IFR in noncertified aircraft is permitted. Exactly which bits of Europe allow it (or have no law on the subject) has been debated here before IMHO it is a useless concept in Europe (except Germany), unless you fly just one particular route via certain countries (as indeed one of the ones I know about does all the time) or you are based somewhere where nobody cares about anything and if they do you just pay them off (as indeed another one I know about does – former USSR).

You can inspect an engine internally but you need to remove at least one cylinder.

Loads of buyers try to insert a condition that such and such may be possible in the future (e.g. a transfer from N-reg to D-reg) but the seller is not liable for that unless he has signed a contract saying that. He would be a fool to sign such a thing.

Regarding VAT I’ve no knowledge of the French or Austrian VAT systems, but some general European principals apply.

If the seller is a private individual, and selling the aircraft as a private individual, then there is no VAT due on the sale. You must be operating as a business to charge VAT.

It would seem, on face value, that the builder paid VAT on the part, wasn’t able to claim that back, and build the aircraft, not as a business, but as a consumer. So the VAT on the parts is the end of the story as far as VAT liability goes.

Your difficulty is proving that if anyone asks. If they bought it as part of a kit, it would be helpful to have a copy of the kit invoices (to show VAT being suffered). Any inspector probably won’t appreciate the difference between a kit and an aircraft anyway! You will probably also require some sort of sale agreement, even if that’s just a letter between you, to show that you purchased it from XXX, at address YYY, for €ZZZ and both of you are private individual, not operating a business, and not registered for VAT.

But as is often the case, it’s not the law that is the problem, but convincing an individual tax officer who won’t let you leave until they are satisfied!

However, it was built in France, so it should be VAT free. Having lived here for a few years, I’ve come to understand that one does not simply walk into ‘Mordor’. (forgive the pun), one must have stacks of documentation and seals and stamps and such to sufficiently baffle any registrar or official into acceptance.

…but the builder kept no visible record of the process

As to bringing your plane onto OE registration – that will be a huge uphill battle as I learnt first hand.
Your noise certificate is just one hurdle… (they can be arranged)

I was interested in a Swiss built kit-plane and had two interesting discussions with the (there is but one) responsible guy at Austrocontrol.
He was helpful, but made it clear that he only saw a registration possible only (!) because it was built from an Austrian kit and certified in Switzerland – they know and trust the process there – and thus acceptably documented. Still needed a tedious plane and document certification to the tune of approx. €4-5k

The previous owner had found a similar situation when registering in Belgium.
So if it is registered in France, then I would try to maintain a French registration (no idea if possible)
In the process, I could rule out GB and DE, but got some hope for the Netherlands, where they have a huge experimental scene..

Strength & Luck ;-)

You definitely may fly the plane with any EASA licence.
If you have any EU citizenship, you may leave it F reg, and register it under your name. If not you may request a special permission to register it under your name
I don’t know whether you may fly in Austria a French homebuilt. Usually nobody cares, but make sure your insurance is still valid.
Registering a homebuilt and obtaining an airworthiness certificate out of her home country is a tall order, it might prove impossible.
VAT is certainly not due anywhere in Europe. If you register your plane in France, the French authorities won’t ask any question, but who knows what paperwork you might be required to produce should you register her anywhere else?

Must have been a hell of a deal AF… There are quite a few reasonably cheap short-body Mooneys on the market in Europe…