Our parts come at cost price plus the cost of delivery. If the maintenance company gets a discount it passes on a fair amount of that to the customer.
Our maintenance co does quite a few N reg and calls on the services of a local A&P/IA who just happens to be a Brit.
The most important thing in flying is to sort out the “ground situation” well. Flying is fun; the sh*t hits the fan when the wheels touch the ground. I have lately seen a lot of people give up flying, and in most cases it wasn’t because of flying; it was because the ground stuff was too much hassle. You must maintain a continual focus on keeping it enjoyable.
And airfield politics (which includes maintenance arrangements) is a huge factor.
For example, nowadays, few people would be well advised to go N-reg, but if you are N-reg and have a good A&P/IA, a hangar (perhaps one you can borrow) to work in, and have collected the FAA papers when opportunities presented themselves, then you have the very best situation possible. You can buy parts most easily, and you don’t have to haggle with maintenance companies which want to supply new parts to make the 25% margin.
Thank you. Indeed this seems to make most sense after some study. I could move it to Austria reg or Germany, but seems that at the end of the day one is best served with whatever is local to the home base, and in my case it will be Italy
Looking at the almost non existent certified SEP scene in Italy I’d investigate how customer service oriented the italian authorities are. With Austria or Germany you’ll be ok. Especially the LBA fees are reasonable too!
To make things easy: first and most important consideration should be to register it in the country where the plane is operated.
Why? That doesn’t make things easier necessarily and in many cases results in even the opposite.
Airborne_Again wrote:
I’d like to see how they justify that with reference to the EU legislation. In particular, you don’t need a CAMO at all if you have an SDMP.
I was told owning a OY- plane without danish residence or owning a danish company isn’t possible, so a CAMO acts as a workaround solution. How precisely it’s done I don’t know. This CAMO might not even be involved in providing a controlled maintenance environment for the plane.
@Malibuflyer: Thank you. Indeed this seems to make most sense after some study. I could move it to Austria reg or Germany, but seems that at the end of the day one is best served with whatever is local to the home base, and in my case it will be Italy 
Thanks again guys. Will report back once I have it, will ferry it back home from Denmark as my first serious flight with it
lukepower wrote:
Any help is appreciated
The most important thing is: Don’t make things too complex. You often hear from people who thought they are clever and could leverage some sort of regulation arbitrage just too figure out that they haven’t been as clever as they thought in the first place or that their luck has changed because some CAA changed their practices.
To make things easy: first and most important consideration should be to register it in the country where the plane is operated. In context of a purchase the next best option would be to “just leave it where it is” if that is possible both from the existing CAA as well as from the country where the plane should be based.
Exceptions to that I would only make in unusual cases (e.g. when operating planes in multiple countries and you want to have them registered all in one or if you have an exotic type, etc.).
In those cases first important thing is that you speak the local language – yes, some CAAs also communicate in English, but in case of trouble it is never the same as being able to talk to somebody in their local language.
Snoopy wrote:
The CAMO would act as a legal instance between owner and Denmark – at least that’s what I was told.
I’d like to see how they justify that with reference to the EU legislation. In particular, you don’t need a CAMO at all if you have an SDMP.
I don’t think they can mandate a Danish CAMO. Beside for private ops with an Owner-Declared Maintenance Programme you don’t even need a CAMO, and also not any 7-year engine checks.
From a maintenance / airworthiness POV they can’t, but apparently they can mandate it if the owner has no ties to Denmark (no residence, no company). The CAMO would act as a legal instance between owner and Denmark – at least that’s what I was told.
Austria OE- registration is allowed for all EU citizens/companies. A legal designee to receive mail has to be provided (basically a friend with an address).
Peter
24-Jan-22 11:06
@gildnn what did you find?
gildnn
10-Sep-17
I might soon face the decision where to register a (planned) US imported aircraft. We are three potential co-buyers, from Luxembourg and Germany. Our preferred option is a D registration provided that turns out not too difficult and costly (depending on whether the aircraft is factory original or has some FAA STCs)
Import of N-registered aircraft did not occur.
In the end it was a Commander from G to D.
Easy, because it was before Brexit.
Commander was sold, a D- registered Bonanza purchased. In a nutshell : D- registration is ok if you observe the administrative rules (like everywhere I guess). No CAMO required any longer. So far I cannot complain but I cannot really compare to other EASA countries either.
