Any pilots / aircraft owners here?

I'm looking to find a loophole in the latest FAA regulation that a non US citizen/resident cannot legally register an N reg aircraft.

There used to be a way where you could register the aircraft in a corporation which was based in the US, but now they insist on 75% US shareholder majority.

My Dad and I want to buy an N reg Cessna from the states and bring it over to the DR. We are both Brits, but as we both have FAA pilots licenses and I have an FAA A&P, we want to keep it on the N reg.

There must be a loophole, as there are hundreds of N reg A/C all over teh Caribbean and I bet they don't all belong to Americans!

SKY said:

Try and find an American you trust to register it then.

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That is an option, but it's quite a favour to ask!

It looks like you can put the aircraft in a Trust and then you become the beneficiary as opposed to putting it in a corporation. Not a 100% sure on the difference but trying to figure it out.

This will be our first venture into aircraft ownership so we're just doing some due diligence first.

Any other comments on ownership here in the DR are greatly appreciated.

cobraboy said:

I owned a C182S for years, and flew it from FL to POP dozens of times.

Not many maintenance facilities here, and I'm sceptical of the quality of work if there were.

Fuel is mega expensive, and I'm sceptical of the quality. tflea here may have better insight.

Unless you keep it @ STI you will find corrosion will be a problem.

You will find few, if any, insurance companies will cover your avionics for theft while in the DR. In fact, you may have a very hard time finding insurance.

The ATC radar and radio equipment just sucks unless things have changed greatly.

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Definitely agree about the standards of ATC and Radar, it's got to be the worst, especially POP. Their English is barely comprehensible and if you ask them anything out of the norm, they just ignore you!

Maintenance is not an issue. I am an aircraft engineer by profession and I am based at POP working for a UK charter airline. I also have my A&P so I can even certify my work legally.

In fact I am in the process of setting up my own maintenance company based at POP. But there are still a few hoops to jump through, ie IDAC, FAA, EASA etc...

As for avionics, the plane we're looking for won't have anything fancy. Probably just VFR equipped with a transponder and a portable Garmin!

I see that this thread has been moved to the airline forum. A bit ambitious at the moment.....But who knows maybe they'll be a Beezair coming soon!