How many hurdles to jump buying an aircraft in Europe

[robione]

Hi all, doing some homework and lots of reading,with a limited budget to buy a PA28 Cherokee.Ive found some really good looking examples on the net but some of the best seem to be outside of the UK in places like The Netherlands and Germany and Belgium.A lot of the UK ones seem a bit expensive in comparison for what u get for yor money outside the UK.I understand there will be fees for de-registration and re-registration, but what else is involved ,im thinking its a European registered a/c so might not be so many hurdles to jump as opposed to bringing one from the USA .If you people could be so kind as to enlighten me ide be mighty oblidged.

[A and C]

With the advent of EASA things should be very simple with just the registration to change.

However I have yet to do the paperwork on a European import and I can't see how the eurocrats would make anything simple!

[znww5]

I'm sure under EASA it will all be effortless and very modestly priced . . . reaches for medication :E

[KeyPilot]

There is one huge hurdle to importing an aircraft from Europe - a multi-year weakness of the pound against the Euro!

With the pound recently reaching a 26-year high against the dollar, the US is the place to look for an airframe to import.

[WorkingHard]

Robione - Simple. Find aircraft, get it "vetted" by a COMPETANT engineer, get engineer also to do paperwork and you should have a nice aircraft at less than UK purchase price. The only fly in the ointment can be the CAA. Watch for mods and approvals

[robione]

Thanks for the replys people.Is it really that simple in Europe?.Im getting excited about it all now but the quote below is a bit worrying.

The only fly in the ointment can be the CAA.

Piont taken about the Pound against the dollar,but that route looks a lot more difficult than the European route to purchase one.I haven,t totally discounted that option but pretty much feel the Euro purchase might be easier and maybe less costly.

[WorkingHard]

From September 2008 any aircraft with a C of A in an EASA country will not be able to be "interfered" with by the CAA so it will become even easier then. That is the theory but our own CAA have the most wonderful ways of delaying things and extracting money from you.

[Zero Thrust]

Hello

Why the fuss over re-registering ? You can operate a "D" "F" "OO"or "PH" a/c quite happily without jumping through the CAA hoops to change registration.

Unless you want to operate on a public transport level there is no requirement to change registration. I have operated a/c on "OO" "D" "EI" and "N" reg over the years and all you need to do is have it serviced by an EASA 145 engineer of which there are plenty.

If you must insist on changing reg then all you need is to produce the ARC for the a/c to the CAA and open your wallet and say after me "help yourself". The actual charges are laid out on the CAA site here and they are not too onerous at the end of the day.

Contact details here:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=56&pagetype=90&pageid=56

But as I said at the beginning , why bother in the first place ?

[IO540]

Unless you want to operate on a public transport level there is no requirement to change registration. I have operated a/c on "OO" "D" "EI" and "N" reg over the years and all you need to do is have it serviced by an EASA 145 engineer of which there are plenty.

There is a number of angles here.

As stated, there should not be a problem basing e.g. a D-reg in the UK, permanently, for private ops.

However, ANO article 115 bans aerial work (without Secy of State permission) in all but G-reg, so even traditional PPL cost sharing is illegal in say a D-reg in UK airspace. Like with an N-reg, even a penny from a passenger is illegal. I have read somewhere that somebody got a letter from the DfT saying Art 115 actually applies only to non-EU registrations, but that is certainly not what it says. I'd get this from the DfT in writing, if wishing to do normal PPL type flight with passengers making a contribution. The CAA has prosecuted people under Art 115 although I have no idea if this ever happened over passenger contributions in an EU-reg.

Public transport is something else. Nearly all of it (other than exemptions like training, charity flights, passenger cost sharing) requires an AOC and while it is posible to get an AOC for a foreign reg, it is harder. There is some stuff on the DfT website about this; basically if any G-reg operator objects then you won't get it. However I doubt the OP wants to do AOC ops.

Importing from the USA is currently very attractive currency-wise, and I would happily operate an N-reg in the UK (in fact I do - and have an FAA CPL/IR). The gotcha is that one needs an FAA PPL (standalone or piggyback) to fly it outside the UK, but it does open the route to the FAA IR which is much more appropriate to European private IFR than the JAA "airline pilot" IR. The thing to watch is that should there be moves against N-reg in years to come, the plane doesn't have any nasties which would prevent it to be moved to G-reg. Also a pre-buy inspection in the USA is going to be really hard; you have to ship a trusted engineer working for YOU out there to see it and do a thorough inspection on it. He also needs to be familiar with UK CofA issues. I would use this route to purchase a known quantity e.g. a brand new plane which is known to conform to EASA regs in its entirety, and then you have the worst case future scenario covered. Well, except for losing IFR privileges... but this threat is at least some years away.