Buying Foreign (Canadian) Registered A/C

kontiki

kontiki

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
May 30, 2011
Messages
1,121
Display Name
Display name:
Kontiki
I see a lot of enticing adds for aircraft currently registered in Canada. I assume that means it has a Canadian Certificate of Airworthiness.

If you buy one and operate it from the US, is there some process you have to go through to conform it to US airworthiness standards?

Anyone know the process or published guidelines?
 
Me, I'd just go write the written exam, get a Canadian license and operate it as a "C" plane in the US...but then I hold a Canadian passport and can keep the Canadian registration.
 
Funny...I keep seeing not only a far larger choice of US N registered aircraft available but far better prices...Canadian aircraft always seem to be far more expensively priced than equivalent US aircraft
 
kontiki said:
If you buy one and operate it from the US, is there some process you have to go through to conform it to US airworthiness standards?
Click to expand...
Yes, there is.

Anyone know the process or published guidelines?
Click to expand...
See FAA AC 8130.2G, especially Chapter 6. See also the US-Canadian bilateral agreement, in particular section 7.3.2 and the cross-referenced 7.3.0(a)(1)-(5). There is an FAA form which must be filled out and submitted by the party doing the conformity inspection. You probably want to line up a shop which has experience doing this before you make the purchase, and maybe even get them to at least review the aircraft's Canadian maintenance records before purchase.


Note that there can be serious snags in this process. I remember seeing at a maintenance shop a really well-equipped Seneca purchased for $90K out of Canada at a time when the going price on such an article here was about $130K. However, once in the US, the conformity inspection turned up $60K of work which needed to be completed to make it FAA-legal again. The owner ended up paying $150K for a $130K airplane.
 
Ron Levy said:
Yes, there is.

See FAA AC 8130.2G, especially Chapter 6. See also the US-Canadian bilateral agreement, in particular section 7.3.2 and the cross-referenced 7.3.0(a)(1)-(5). There is an FAA form which must be filled out and submitted by the party doing the conformity inspection. You probably want to line up a shop which has experience doing this before you make the purchase, and maybe even get them to at least review the aircraft's Canadian maintenance records before purchase.


Note that there can be serious snags in this process. I remember seeing at a maintenance shop a really well-equipped Seneca purchased for $90K out of Canada at a time when the going price on such an article here was about $130K. However, once in the US, the conformity inspection turned up $60K of work which needed to be completed to make it FAA-legal again. The owner ended up paying $150K for a $130K airplane.
Click to expand...

The conformity inspection you refer to is an annual (including FAR 39) IAW 43-D.

You request an N number, apply it to the aircraft, then complete the annual and then request the FAA issue a AWC to the N number.

You can get the forms to do this at FAA.GOV. forms.
 
Just out of curiosity, is there a restriction on flying a Canadian "Owner Maintained" aircraft in the US?
 
Tom-D said:
The conformity inspection you refer to is an annual (including FAR 39) IAW 43-D.

You request an N number, apply it to the aircraft, then complete the annual and then request the FAA issue a AWC to the N number.

You can get the forms to do this at FAA.GOV. forms.
Click to expand...
That's not all there is to it. There is another form required besides the request for registration and applying for an AWC. See the referenced FAA pubs.
 
Ron Levy said:
That's not all there is to it. There is another form required besides the request for registration and applying for an AWC. See the referenced FAA pubs.
Click to expand...

How many aircraft have you imported?
 
Ron Levy said:
See the referenced FAA pubs.
Click to expand...

Done that
ORDER 8130.2G CHG 1
CHANGE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION National Policy
7/02/2012
SUBJ: Airworthiness Certification of Aircraft and Related Products
1. Purpose. This change contains guidance related to the certification process for light-sport
aircraft (LSA).
 
Tom-D said:
Done that
ORDER 8130.2G CHG 1
CHANGE
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION National Policy
7/02/2012
SUBJ: Airworthiness Certification of Aircraft and Related Products
1. Purpose. This change contains guidance related to the certification process for light-sport
aircraft (LSA).
Click to expand...
That's the purpose of CHG 1, not the whole order. You don't have to have imported a plane to read and understand the FAA pubs, but you do have to read and understand them in order to do this properly.
 
Ron Levy said:
That's the purpose of CHG 1, not the whole order. You don't have to have imported a plane to read and understand the FAA pubs, but you do have to read and understand them in order to do this properly.
Click to expand...

7.3.2 your reference is for flight permits and identifying the aircraft and it is not required

Figure 7-3. Sample SFA for the Purpose of Flight Testing
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Aviation Administration
NON-U.S. CIVIL AIRCRAFT SPECIAL FLIGHT AUTHORIZATION (SFA)

Secondly why would you need a special flight permit?

If you go north to buy any aircraft buy one that is in a airworthy condition and has a CofA, then any Canadian pilot can fly it to any airport in the USA no special flight permit is needed.

After you take custody of the aircraft get the serial numbers etc and then request the N number. after it has had the annual preformed, then you request the FAA to issue the AWC.

I completed an import this week that was all that was done.

Yes you do have to know how to read the rules, but it is handy to know which applies.

For importing any aircraft built in the US chapter #8 applies not 7.

chapter #6 is all about importing products that were build/manufactured in other countries that we have a bi-lateral agreement.

 
Things to remember when importing aircraft from Canada.

you as a US pilot can not go to Canada and fly a Canadian aircraft back to the US. You can fly any US registered aircraft to any place in Canada. any Canadian pilot can fly any Canadian registered aircraft to any airport in the US. plus the Canadian pilot can't come down here and fly any US registered aircraft back to Canada.

there are Piper aircraft that were made for export and do not meet US airworthiness requirements you can not get them an AWC in the US.

You, your A&P-IA, and the local FSDO should be talking to each other long before the money flows.
 
Tom-D said:
chapter #6 is all about importing products that were build/manufactured in other countries that we have a bi-lateral agreement.

Click to expand...

Does this also apply to Canadian built experimentals? (Murphy Moose for example)
 
JeffDG said:
Me, I'd just go write the written exam, get a Canadian license and operate it as a "C" plane in the US...but then I hold a Canadian passport and can keep the Canadian registration.
Click to expand...

Me too...plus I hold a Transport Canada PPL. ;)
 
Capt.Crash'n'Burn said:
Does this also apply to Canadian built experimentals? (Murphy Moose for example)
Click to expand...
I can't speak from experience on importing EXP aircraft that are complete and flying with C Letters.

You can buy unfinished EXP aircraft and bring them down and finish them and do the registering here.
 
JeffDG said:
Just out of curiosity, is there a restriction on flying a Canadian "Owner Maintained" aircraft in the US?
Click to expand...

Yup. Can't be done since there is no equivalent category in the US. We can't even fly our Canadian Owner-Maintained airplanes into the US on a trip.

https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/publications/tp185-6483.html

"The program is clearly not wildly popular, perhaps because owner-maintenance aircraft are not allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly in the United States."

Scroll about halfway down the page.

Dan
 
Airplanes in Canada are generally more expensive than in the US at present because our economy didn't suffer nearly as badly in the last recession.

Some aircraft are entering Canada from the US because the prices look so good, but the import costs are terrible.

Dan
 
Tom-D said:
I can't speak from experience on importing EXP aircraft that are complete and flying with C Letters.

You can buy unfinished EXP aircraft and bring them down and finish them and do the registering here.
Click to expand...


OK. The thing that got me thinking about it was this advertisement for a Super Cyclone in Canada. It says "Aircraft can be US registered using an American DAR". How would you go about getting the plane re-certified by an American DAR??

http://www.controller.com/listingsd...ODUITS-AVIATECH-INC-SUPER-CYCLONE/1258581.htm
 
Last edited:
Some of the cross-border transactions can include tricky issues. We sent a C-340 to Canada a few years ago. It was equipped with some new super-duper state-of-the-art props that were STC'd and widely acclaimed in the US. Turns out they weren't approved in Canada so they sent them back and bought a used set of the old ones so they could fly the plane in Canada until their FAA approved the STC.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top