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Importing from Canada to USA

jmcanty3

Active Member
Has anyone recently imported a flying RV from Canada into the US? Any tips/procedures/pitfalls you can share would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
It will be much simpler if you can get the Canadian owner to fly it into the U.S.

Once you have the plane in the U.S. you can fly on Canadian registration if you chose to do so. To get U.S. registration you must first cancel Canadian registration and have them confirm directly to FAA. This takes about a month. Then you must get new airworthiness certificate which requires new N # and DAR inspection.
 
US Certificate holders can obtain a temporary Equivalency License so that they can operate a Canadian registered aircraft. This used to be done in person, but with Covid, I did the whole thing via email. I was issued a six month license for "ferry and local flying" which allowed me to fly the plane across the border and then locally for a couple of days to allow M'lady to bend it around the sky a bit from the back seat. I did confirm with my insurance broker that I was covered under my current policy for such things.

Then the plane was grounded, and I sent the registration back to the prior owner for submission to Transport Canada for deregistration. Follow up on that process early and often, via phone call to Transport Canada.

I employed DixieAire in Oklahoma City at the suggestion of my DAR to register in the US. They were the ones who said it seemed there was a delay by Transport Canada, and once I was able to push the deregistration along, I had a temporary registration 48 hours later. Money well spent.

While waiting for registration, I performed an owner assisted condition inspection. After confirming a temporary registration was sufficient to move forward, I was able to schedule the DAR two weeks later. I made sure all the forms he wanted were available, and handed over several AMU's and listened to his stories. He sort of looked at the airplane. Again, money well spent. :)

My "American" plane was up and flying again after the grounding in about 30 days time.
 
Very true but this was never mentioned in the earlier post. Just another government control. The plane sure doesn't care.
 
Holders of a Canadian license can fly US registered aircraft in Canada. The reverse is also true. An American license holder can use his US license to fly a Canadian registered aircraft but only while in the US.
 
Well that is news to me. When did they change that. I was under the impression that to legally fly a Canadian registered plane you had to hold a Canadian pilots licence, if you want to fly a USA registered plane then you must hold a USA pilots licence. Just like any other countries planes you must hold a license for their planes. Please tell me where these rules are written. No matter what country the plane is in.
 
(b) Required pilot certificate for operating a foreign-registered aircraft within the United States. No person may serve as a required pilot flight crewmember of a civil aircraft of foreign registry within the United States, unless -

(1) That person's pilot certificate or document issued under § 61.29(e) is in that person's physical possession or readily accessible in the aircraft when exercising the privileges of that pilot certificate; and

(2) Has been issued in accordance with this part, or has been issued or validated by the country in which the aircraft is registered.

So, for a pilot with a US license to fly a Canadian aircraft in the US, he must have a license issued in accordance with 61.29(e) (that's the US license), or a Canadian license. The US license must be applicable to the Cdn aircraft...e.g. you can't fly a Canadian twin without a US multi engine license.
 
One of the bugaboos involved in importing a Canadian-built amateur-built aircraft into the USA arises from differences in the respective country's rules regarding professional assistance.

In Canada it is perfectly legal to have a "hired gun" build the airplane for you, as long as you remain in direct control of the project and can prove that to be the case. The FAA rules are somewhat different on this point and therein lies the sticking point.

An aircraft which has been "professionally built" in Canada will be seen by the FAA as not meeting the 51% amateur-built requirement and thus will be ineligible for registration as an amateur-built aircraft in the USA.

With this in mind it is wise to exercise due diligence in securing aircraft build records which document the build as being done by the amateur builder as the FAA may require examination of these documents before proceeding with registration in the USA.
 
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