I know a couple people who have bought and imported certficated airplanes from Canada. From their descriptions, it's not really a nightmare but it is a pain in the ass, due to the extensive "conformity inspection" and proper documentation and/or correction of any mod's or discrepencies.
I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with or knowledge of what is involved buying and importing a homebuilt and/or experimental? Since a homebuilt has no type certificate, there isn't anything to be in conformity with except airworthiness requirements, so maybe gettin one registered here wouldn't be too bad?

Eric

My dad was just telling me yesterday how he'd talked to a guy who was importing a Ptarmigan helicopter from Russia. I would think that any red tape would be more customs oriented than airworthiness/FAA. They likely just want to tax you on the import of manufactured goods. This is my penny worth of speculation.

friend of mine imported a heli and mig a couple years ago. he hired a broker to handle getting them to california. the ac seemed to be in customs a while but everything arrived without any real issues and were delivered to his hanger the same day they cleared customs.

The trouble isn't generally with the actual "importation", it's with registering the airplane with the FAA. Ask Bela about registering his Canadian 170 ("Powerline").
A factory built aircraft,foreign or domestic, is a different breed of cat than an ameteur-built experimental.
Anybody here ever registered an imported homebuilt?

Eric

If it was my intentions to import an experimental aircraft, I would contact eaa, faa and a broker... I would assume if the aircraft was already issued an airworthy cert from whatever country your importing from, it would make the process much easier, but I've never done it myself...

I'm purchasing a russian aircraft from a U.S. company that was disassembled prior to being shipped from Russia and is being delivered as a disassembled experimental aircraft even though the aircraft was not considered an experimental aircraft in Russia...

In '04 I bought a C-185 from Calgary, Alberta. I had an "export C of A" performed at the shop that had maintained the plane. This was a very thorough annual, putting placards on how to open the door, etc. It was also the most expensive annual I had ever had up to that time.

I bound insurance and had a Canadian pilot ferry the plane to Minden/Garderville where Jim Crozier checked the plane over for FAA compliance. He got a local DAR to sign off the paperwork and that was that.

To sumarize, the paperwork that a Canadian airplane has to have to be legal, is much more extensive than US requirements. The shop I used in Calgary did a mediocre job at a premium price. Jim Crozier and the DAR did a good job at a fair price. All in all, I think I would look for a US registerd plane and avoid the hassle. By the way, it isn't as bad to re-import a plane as it was originally built in the US. Good Luck, Ford

zero.one.victor wrote:The trouble isn't generally with the actual "importation", it's with registering the airplane with the FAA. Ask Bela about registering his Canadian 170 ("Powerline").
A factory built aircraft,foreign or domestic, is a different breed of cat than an ameteur-built experimental.
Anybody here ever registered an imported homebuilt?

Eric

Been busy, and ain't had time to surf the bloody internet lately.

For what it's worth, I'd do whatever I could to not import another
aircraft from Canada into the US (I'd explore every other option /
prospective purchase in the States 1st).

Think of an conformity inspection as the mother of all annuals from
hell. Now think of it not so much from an airframe/maintenance
perspective, but from a "squeaky-clean" paperwork perspective.
That's basically what the conformity inspection will be like. My DAR
spent 15 minutes looking at my old 170 and a couple of hours making
sure the paperwork met the type certificate (and any mods, etc.) to a T.

I bet 6 or 7 out of 10 GA airplanes flying in the US right now would never
pass a conformity inspection without some work being done 1st (airframe
and/or paperwork).

If you have to pay someone $60-$75+ dollars an hour to prep an
imported aircraft for a conformity inspection, any money you would
have "saved" by buying it out of the country (at an ostensibly lower
than U.S. market price) will be quickly offset by the hours of labor it will
take to make the paperwork match the airplane squeaky-clean-like.

An Export Certificate of Airworthiness means you paid someone
else (i.e., Canadian mechanics) to do the "hard work" for you,
but you will still have to hire a DAR and it will still require a
conformity inspection. If the Canadian Export C of A was done
properly, you'll probably pass the CI no problem. If it wasn't
done properly, you've just wasted your time & money getting the
export C of A.

I'm probably making it sound worse with this post than it typically
is (importing an aircraft) but if there's one piece of advice I can give,
it is go in with eyes wide open. The deal (asking price) would have
to be awefully attractive for me to do it again, and I'd owe my IA
several bottles of the booze of his choice for ever making him go
through that again.

I believe that any aircraft that does not hold US type certification would have to be registered in the Experimental category. Within that category, there are several classes of aircraft. The "normal" class that is used for homebuilt aircraft is "Experimental-Amateur Built". That pretty much permits the owner to do whatever they wish with the aircraft, EXCEPT fly for compensation or hire.

I seriously doubt that the FAA would license a foreign built homebuilt as an Experimental Amateur Built, because to do so, the builder has to keep a log of construction, and the FAA has to inspect the construction at stages throughout its construction. Since the foreign airplane would already be completed in this case, the FAA would not be able to inspect it during construction, and I seriously doubt they'd go for this category.

The FAA MIGHT be willing to license the aircraft in the "Experimental--Airshow and Exhibition" class. This is the category that most of the foreign military aircraft are in, and many of the US warbirds as well, though some of them are Limited category.

Unfortunately, if you were to register it in the Experimental--Exhibition category, you are only allowed to fly the airplane to, from and at airshows and exhibitions (essentially-its a little more complex than that), and for proficiency and training. This is very limiting on where and when you can fly the airplane.

There is also an "Experimental--Flight Test" category, but this is typically only issued for a short time, while an aircraft or a modification to it is in flight testing. When the permit for the flight test is done, the airplane has to be reconfigured to its original conformity or the new configuration has to be certified. Barring that--its junk.

I seriously doubt you'd get away with importing a non certified foreign airplane into the US unless you put it in the Experimental--Exhibition category, and that category would severely restrict your use of the plane.

Too many homebuilts in this country to be looking for that kind of headache seems to me.

MTV

The airplane I had in mind when I posted my question was a "Bushmaster" or "Producer" type homebuilt. For those who don't know, to put it in a nutshell, this is a stretched-fuselage, extended-wing Pacer. For anyone knowledgable about this sort of thing, they're pretty obviously not a factory-built aircraft, forejgn or domestic.
I've always heard that the FAA has to see a builder's log and/or do preiodic in-progress inspections, but a couple friends recently finished building Glastars and that wasn't the case after all. The DAR just came and very thoroughly inspected the airplanes, talked them over with the (pretty obvious) builder, and that was that.
Does TransportCanada have an ameteur-built category of aircraft? If it was registered as such in Canada, I don't see where the FAA would have a problem registering it as such here. Of course, the buyer/importer would not be eligible for a repairman certificate-- only the builder would be.

Eric

Eric,

The logical approach here would be to have this discussion with the FAA. THey are the ones who would have to issue the A/W certificate, so why not give them a call?

MTV

Eric

It seems very simple to me to import a kit plane from another country. The regs do not say you have to purchase new parts for a project to assemble. Buy your project and apply for your own paperwork with the feds and assemble your own experimental. Just because the parts you bought for your project came off another aircraft doesn't disqualify them for yours as long as you feel they are in airworthy condition.

I think he's talking about importing an already constructed, completed homebuilt, not a project. I suppose he could tear it apart and re-assemble it, but that wouldn't qualify under the 51 % rule for homebuilts, would it?

Frankly, with all the hassle the FAA offers to those trying to import CERTIFIED airplanes, I'd be real surprised if they wouldn't be pretty anal about homebuilts, but I'd sure be asking them first.......Or you could just buy the thing, and give it a shot .

Good luck, but I'd call the people who would have to sign the certificate, not us.

MTV