herve-RV7

herve-RV7

Active Member
Hi All,

I'm currently at finishing stage of my 7A in France. I have a proposal for my job to move South Carolina for a couple of years (Plus one optionally).
Is there a RV builder community in the area of Greenville ?

I'm wondering what to do with my Project : Store somewhere in France, but 2 or 3 years is a long period to wait; Sale the project and restart when I will be back (I don't really think I can do that after so long efforts), or bring with me in the US. In such case, what about registration of the plane in the US ?
Any advise would be welcome.
Thanks in advance
 
My project was stored for four years in Chicago because I had no place to build. It's tough but I think storage may be your best option. It would save you the hassle of moving the project (twice!), and dealing with registration in the US and then registration again when you return to France. Instead, maybe spend the time meeting people with flying RVs and get some transition training; most builders find their skill atrophy during the building process.
 
I agree with the storage in France approach

Early in my career I had a similar decision to make and I made it the wrong way (in favor of my hobby). In the long run everything worked out well but that decision still bothers me. Building an airplane is such a long term project that two or three years of thought and anticipation are not a real problem.

Bob Axsom
 
A couple of thoughts---

Herve, how far along are you??? This might effect the process.

Could you bring along some small sub assemblys to work on here, but leave the main components in France?? I.E., bring parts to build flaps, but leave wings there.

Are there things you still need to purchase, that you could get here, work on, and they ship home??
 
Many factors

Salut Hervé,

Not sure what kind of work you will be doing in the US, but if you believe you will have time to build and finish the aircraft, that would be a great experience to fly it in the US. France is a fantastic place to fly - probably the easiest in Europe, but it's even easier and cheaper in the US.

If you could finish the aircraft in the first year, then you will have 1 or 2 years to fly around the US in it before you bring it back. I'd check with the DGAC to see what needs to be done to bring it back and get the F- registration. I know Barry has changed his RV6 from an N- to and F- so it can be done. Not sure how much work it is.

Shipping it should not be that expensive given today's market - who knows, perhaps you'll want to fly it back!

Best of luck with it!
 
Buy local?

Maybe purchase (or buy in on) a local RV here, get lots of hours flying around the States, sell it when you leave.

ff
 
Stay here

Herve: Alors, tu pourrait te rester ici, te devenir Americain, finir ton avion ici, voler toujours, a toutes directions, plus economiquement, et faire des vacances a la France... Bienvenut!!
Thomas
 
Herve, Give me a call +33 6 78 21 58 01. I am an RV8 builder (now flying), living in France and we can talk about the options you have.
 
Moving to the US

In 1997 I moved to the US for 5 years and took my partially finished RV6A with me. I was luck as I was working near to Dallas and was able to finish my plane in 1999 with the help of George Orndorff who had at that time a builders help center near to Fort Worth. Fortunately when I started building my RV in France I opened up a "dossier" with the DGAC and they gave me a builders number. Also I had the DGAC inspect and sign off the wing spar before I left for the US. Because of this I was able to have my plane put on the French register when I brought it back to France. I am sure you are aware of the fact that you can not import a home built plane into France unless it was originally built in France. If you want more information on all this email me off list at ward.barry at neuf.fr

Barry
 
Barry said:
... I am sure you are aware of the fact that you can not import a home built plane into France unless it was originally built in France. If you want more information on all this email me off list at ward.barry at neuf.fr

Barry
Click to expand...
There is one other small issue. In this post 9/11 world foreign nationals cannot register a plane in the US. A friend of mine went through this but got his "papers" just before the inspection.

Best of luck with the move. Where in SC are you going to live?
 
Unless the rules have recently changed a foreign national can set up a US company registered in Delaware. The plane is then registered in the name of the company. The FAA probably still accept this method of registration. The only restriction is that the plane must be flown mainly in the USA and any trips outside the US are restricted and must be reported to the FAA each 6 months. There are other methods like setting up a Trust. Several companies will do this and in this case you can operate the plane outside the USA for as long as you wish. However the Trust is more expensive to set up and operate than the Delaware Company. There are many N registered planes flying outside the USA using the USA Trust method.

Barry
 
Barry said:
Unless the rules have recently changed a foreign national can set up a US company registered in Delaware. The plane is then registered in the name of the company...
Click to expand...
Barry,

It is my understanding that the majority of the company must be US owned. I could be wrong on this, so please verify. These rules were put in place to try and limit drug smuggling.
 
These rules were put in place to try and limit drug smuggling.
__________________
Bill R.
RV-9 Flying
135 HP O-290-D2, dual P-mags, Catto 2 blade prop, and no JATO bottles.
Build the plane you want, not the plane others want you to build!

Bill,

I set up a Delaware company when my RV was based in the USA and then a USA owned Trust based in the Cayman Islands when I had the plane back in Europe. I had no problems with this and it was accepted by the FAA. Concerning your remark about drug smugglers are you implying that only foreign nationals do this!!:)

Barry
 
Barry said:
... Concerning your remark about drug smugglers are you implying that only foreign nationals do this!!:)

Barry
Click to expand...

No, not at all. The issue was that people were trying to hide the ownership of the planes that were used to bring the stuff in to the country.

Good to hear your setup worked. Like I stated, verify what I put out there. That was what one friend went through and he was very close to not getting his pink slip. We even joked about the need to have a baby here in the US so he could put the plane in the kid's name.
 
Thanks

Hi All,

Thanks for the advices. I will most probably go to the storage in France way considering the difficulty to move and register the project, and take the opportunity to fly in the US with a "Non RV" plane. This is very frustrating to wait 2 or 3 years before finishing my bird at such an advanced stage. But let's see what will be the future...
 
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