In article , TTA Cherokee Driver wrote:

Why bother registering it here/ Can't he own and fly a
foreign-registered aircraft here? AFter all, plenty of n-number planes
are based in and flying around europe, I recall there was a discussion
of that in this newsgroup several months ago.

The reason it's done quite a lot in Europe is many people go to the US
for their pilot certificates. If you have a US certificate, you can fly
an N numbered plane anywhere. Because FAA certificates are quite common,
and because many people don't want to go through the hassle of getting a
JAR instrument rating, so are N numbered planes. Therefore, the support
(FAA mechanics and AIs) are also available.

Going the other way, virtually no one in the US has a JAA license and
virtually no mechanics will be able to work on a Portugese registered
aircraft. Therefore you can't get it maintained. You can't fly it on
your FAA certificate. If you have a JAA certificate you can only fly it
till annual comes up, at which point you'll need a JAA mechanic to work
on it, and you won't be able to find one.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"