Importing an airplane is not trivial. First of all, no one will
finance it, so you can forget using it as collateral. This is BEFORE
it is imported. Once you get it US registered this is no longer true.
Then you have to have it inspected. If it has had any modifications
that are not USA approved (like a Canadian STC that is not an STC in
the USA), you have to fix that. All of this has to be done by a DER,
an IA wont do. It helps if the airplane was originally certified as a
USA aircraft. You also have to repaint the N Numbers. A rough estimate
is that it takes about $10,000 to inspect, deliver, re-certify, paint
and whatever else you run into. But you never know how much it will
cost, could be less, could be more.
In your case, Argentina is a long way away. Expensive and risky
delivery. For a while they were importing aircraft from South Africa.
You could buy a Baron for 1/2 the price of a USA one. Canadian 185's
seem to go for about $20K less than US ones. So it can make sense. The
less expensive the aircraft, the lesss sense it makes. Proabably just
as expensive to import a 200k aircraft as a 50k one.
If I were to import one, I'd call a big dealer in Canada and see if I
could get the name of a USA DER that specializes in these issues. Talk
to him and see how much it would cost. I suspect there are some near
the Canadian border.
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