Hi all,

I'm looking at buying an aircraft in France. You know the story, saw it, fell in love with it and now the hard reality of buying it and getting it home is drawing nearer. Before I part with the hard earned wonga to some dodgy, Gaulois smoking froggy, anyone ever imported an aircraft from France into the UK?

What's involved in terms of paperwork, legalities etc? Can I fly it in the UK on its French registration until I get it transferred into UK marks? What customs paperwork is required? VAT? Tax etc?

Its a Jodel by the way

Any pointers or advice leading to a succesful purchase gladly accepted:ok:

Z526

Zlin!

They are not aerobatic!

But obviously lovely aircraft.

Option 1.

Leave it on the F register. You then have to have it maintained according to the French rules which likely involves at least a yearly trip to La Douce.

Option 2.

Get an export C of A. Fly it to Old Blighty. Get your licensed engineer and maintenance organisation get it on the G register. This may involve some remedial work to make it comply with the British rules and will certainly involve a cheque of approximately £400 to the CAA for the privilege.

VAT is not an issue as it is from another EU country. Same for customs AFAIK.

For all things jodel look at www.jodel.com where there is a bunch of good people from all over the globe who are truly in love with the machines.

If you need to have the name of someone who could hold your hand in the process I would have no hesitation in recommending Rex Ford of Fordair @<hidden> Sywell 01604-645996. He would also be happy to come over to have a look at the machine before you part with your hard earned cash.

If you want to know more send me a PM

FD

Agree with the above.

Some Jodels though may have a CNRA rather than a CDN. This is like having a Permit to Fly instead of a CofA. In this case it will be necessary to check with CAA or PFA to see if the same arrangement can be used in the UK.

Once you have got the Export CofA and cancelled the F registration, you will need a time-limited single flight authorisation to bring it to the UK. It can only fly again when it has a UK registration and CofA or permit.

Ernie Horsfall at Blackpool also has a lot of experience of importing Jodels, but he may want to sell you one himself.

Guys, thanks for the advice.

Dutch,

I know its not aerobatic, but Mrs Zlin doesnt do aeros:* But, she do like a bit of touring:ok: And I havent got an endless supply of cash to cover the engineering bills of a Zlin 526. So a Jodel it is..

Zlin,

Spill the beans, were is the machine based and what type is it?

Did you find the web pages helpful? There is an email list for afficionados. Give me a shout if you have difficulty getting onto that.

Keep us posted on the progress.

IF at any point you come to Sywell for any reason, send me a PM and we'll meet up.

FD

Zlin, just do it. There will be a bit of a faff gettin your aeroplane dereistered from the French register. But look at it this way. It could be worse. It could be Italian registered - little is more complex than getting an aeroplane off the Italian register....