mb
Full Member
Posts: 201
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Post by mb on May 2, 2017 20:35:40 GMT 1
I was looking at Harvard 7726 S.A.A.F. at Halfpenny Green last Sat but although I can identify it as N726KM as far as I can find it has not taken up a UK reg.WHIIICH took me back to a visit to Sturgate back end of last year and one of the resident members there took us under his wing and when we came across another US registered a/c he was explaining that numerous a/c retain their US registrations in order to stick with reduced US maintenance requirements and not to have to adhere to more stringent(?) CAA standards.Can anyone out there cast any light on the accuracy of this?
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Post by ronturner on May 3, 2017 7:21:38 GMT 1
There are a large number of N registered aircraft in the UK and for that matter throughout the whole world. The reasons are many fold and include the maintenance regime and pilot licensing.
Its not correct to suggest that the maintenance regime is in some way inferior to the CAA (EASA) one, although it is based on a more common sense approach to safety rather than bureaucratic form filling. If you look at accident statistics it will be seen that the safest fleets in the world operate on the "N" register and this is especially the case with what is called "General Aviation". There has recently been an overhaul of maintenance regimes in Europe and thankfully we are changing and leaning more towards the American model.
The approach to pilot licensing is different too, especially for instrument ratings where the syllabus concentrates on flying skills far more than the (previous) European one. This is another area where we Europeans are gradually coming around to the US model. Still work to be done. Until 2 years ago, a private pilot flying IFR on a European Licence had to have the same theoretical knowledge as say the pilot of a 747, in such topics as how many fire extinguishers to carry on board. The simpler more practical and less costly approach to flying IFR is the main reason why so many people opted to be with "N" reg.
For those who like to fly for fun by day and in good weather the UK CAA has now adopted an more American approach to pilot medicals so that it is possible to fly many types ( not all) simply if you are fit enough to hold a driving licence, but restricted to UK airspace, for the moment.
There are downsides to the N reg. for non US citizens, but for people who fly a lot they are outweighed by savings.
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Post by jetdragon on May 4, 2017 1:29:21 GMT 1
There are downsides to the N reg. for non US citizens, but for people who fly a lot they are outweighed by savings. I recall reading somewhere that this explains why many of the aircraft are actually registered to Trusts which are resident in the US - happy to be corrected  |
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Post by ronturner on May 4, 2017 6:38:32 GMT 1
Yes, correct about Trusts. As far as I know,only US citizens or companies are allowed to register aircraft so the machine has to be owned by a trust, usually in Delaware, probably because the laws are different there. There might also be insurance liabilities tied up in this somewhere too.
I looked into this for my 172 several years ago and decided it was not for me. The cost of the trust was about $2000 per year and there were the initial costs of registration, marking and painting. It was more cost effective to pay more for maintenance bureaucracy over here. At the time I was flying IFR, sometimes, using my IMC rating, more often than not, flying IFR just to keep the rating valid, than for pure need. There was talk of the IMC rating being abandoned by EASA, so that was my interest in going for an American Instrument rating. In reality it was simply just not worth the trouble and as it works out, the IMC rating is still valid.
For pure VFR/Day flying which is what I now concern myself with, the introduction of the NPPL, then the LAPL with less strenuous medical requirements, moving closer to the FAA PPL medical requirements, it is gradually working out.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2017 10:51:12 GMT 1
There are downsides to the N reg. for non US citizens, but for people who fly a lot they are outweighed by savings. I recall reading somewhere that this explains why many of the aircraft are actually registered to Trusts which are resident in the US - happy to be corrected Yes, the US long ago decided that rather than have the money go offshore, they'd have one state in the union where companies could register and pay less tax. Thus almost every large corporation in the US has an office in Delaware. From Wiki: More than 50% of all U.S. publicly traded companies and 63% of the Fortune 500 are incorporated in Delaware.[58] The state's attractiveness as a corporate haven is largely because of its business-friendly corporation law. Franchise taxes on Delaware corporations supply about one-fifth of its state revenue.[59] Although "USA (Delaware)" ranked as the world's most opaque jurisdiction on the Tax Justice Network's 2009 Financial Secrecy Index,[60] the same group's 2011 Index ranks the USA fifth and does not specify Delaware.[61] In Delaware, there are more than a million registered corporations,[62] meaning there are more corporations than people. business-friendly corporation law = Americaspeak for low tax regime. |
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