Originally Posted by
goldeneaglepilot
Maxred - wow, you certainly are prickly if anyone has an opinion different to yours. Do you own and fly an N reg aircraft yourself?
Just for the sake of clarity, I will clarify a statement of mine earlier:
The Loophole is that the ONLY way to own an N Reg aircraft if you are not a US Citizen is by having it registered to either an American citizen as the owner OR to an American based trust.
Of course if details of the actual owner (the trustor) was availible to the authorities it would remove a lot of the issues over N-Reg being based and operated in the UK.
Now this could also be addressed easily by allowing ownership of N Reg aircraft by a non US entity and making the details of ownership availible through a similar system as G-INFO.
In the UK you would still want to hold any group operated aircraft in a 'limited liability structure' rather than in the individual's names as the owners are jointly and severally liable for all injuries and damages on the ground.
In addition, I believe the trust documents identifying the trustor are filed with the FAA, so this information is not opaque at the regulatory level
Besides trusts, you can also have the aircraft owned by an American corporation with (I think) 75% of the voting shares held by US Citizens, The President being US Citizen and 2/3 of Directors/Managing Officers US Citizens. I believe it is then possible for a non-US citizen to have a mortgage interest over the aircraft (for security of the capital) and to fly it. I know this is much more inconvenient than the trust structure, but it is nonetheless still viable for some people.