Anyone have any experience with aircraft export? I am wondering what is involved. I would like to import a Cessna to the Philippines.

lownslow79 wrote:Anyone have any experience with aircraft export? I am wondering what is involved. I would like to import a Cessna to the Philippines.

Plan on spending about 10K-12K

These guys might be the cheapest [email protected]

I am just wondering how much costs are involved. I am sure it vary's by destination and country tax. Not a lot of Cessna aircraft in good shape in the Philippines. I would love to buy a cheap C-150 and ship it over, so I can have a nice play toy while I am over here and then sell when i am done.

I would think the PI version of the FAA could give you the import requirements. You can buy a cheap but flyable C150 for $12-15K here in the US, but I have no idea what the shipping costs would be. Pull the wings & however much of the tail you have to, & stuff it all into a container, I guess.

Try asking the missionaries?? Kenmore has stuffed a fair number of beavers inside containers, but those were mostly for import.

The cost of shipping an early Cardinal 177 to Africa was higher than the value of the aircraft in march of 1983. A man I knew took a deduction equal to the value of the plane when he donated it to a missionary service and delivered it to Wiley Post field, OK City for it to await further shipping instructions. It took a while but the missionary service finally turned it down because of the shipping cost and the limited value to them of that particular plane in their work and after it sitting two years out in the rain and blowing red Okey dirt he gave me his gold card and an airline ticket to fly it back up here on a ferry permit, which I did after cleaning the air filter, putting in a new battery and getting the water out of the fuel system. I felt like a real test pilot when I took off and circled the airfield the first time. 7 hrs of hiccup free flying later, I was home.

Hi. I imported my plane into the Philippines a couple years ago, from Virginia to Manila. With wings and tailfeathers removed, I put it into a container and shipped it over there. It took 50 days to get there. Actual shipment cost was about $4,000, which isn't so bad I suppose. However, dealing with Customs was a very different issue, very difficult. I will leave the conclusions for you to make, but this is what actually happened.

Being a newbie at importing a plane into the Philippines, I of course did everything wrong. I got a Customs broker that was not a reference from somebody else and of whom I was not familiar with. They made a deal with Customs via an independent Customs broker who got it cleared for a little over $1000USD, while the actual broker gladly accepted the $6,000USD they claimed the clearance required. Then they told me the "official receipt" got lost and they could not help me to obtain it from Customs since the import was complete and they had no further contractual obligations to assist me in any way. Without the "official receipt" from Customs, my plane could not be legally registered.

I went to Customs several times, trying to get them to hand over even a copy of my official receipt. On my first visit they said they would look for it in their back log of receipts and records. Another time they said my receipt didn't exist because the independent broker had all the paperwork. I contacted the independent broker and he claimed he had lost all the paperwork. I returned to Customs later last year and they said all was lost in the last typhoon and they had no legal basis to issue a new official receipt. Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Authority Philippines aircraft registering office continued to deny the new registration of the Ridge Runner because I could not present an official receipt for its import.

About two months ago, at wits end and considering sending the plane back to the USA or selling it as is for a reduced price on account of the Customs and aircraft registration problem, I was telling my troubles to my taxi driver in Manila. Evidently, he knows people in high places. He managed to get a retired army general that he knows, and a contingent of bodyguards to go en masse to the Philippine Customs office in Manila. After forking over $500 as a helper fee, the army general and his bodyguards went into the Customs office and demanded the official receipt. Customs handed it over to him in 5 minutes.

There are plenty of airplanes for sale in the Philippines, just not advertised online. I know also of a very nice Maule M7 for sale for about $90,000, already registered and ready to enjoy. I've seen it in person. It's very clean.

http://www.planecheck.com/eu/index.asp? ... 3213&cor=y

There are also some light sport aircraft for sale at the flying club I am a member of (www.angelesflying.com). And, since there is an abundance of flight schools all over the Philippines, there are many Cessna 150s around, some probably for sale. So, importing a plane has the potential for real heartache, or great joy. I recommend only going for it if it's some plane you really love and cannot live without or fits some special, narrowly defined performance niche. If it wasn't for the RR being such a great plane for my requirements, I would probably settle for buying something already imported, cleared and registered.

Contact me directly at my email -have 150 ready for container -can be delivered anywhere for a price. Also have delivered several containers of equipment to Philippines for customers.