The Murphy Builders Site

This is a little off-topic, but with a number of Canadian folk in the forum I thought I would ask the following:

I have a friend who has found a GlassAir project for sale in Edmonton. He badly wants to buy it, but needs some information. I told him about this site, and that I would post here to see what we could learn.

What kind of problems will he have trying to cross the border with a truck full of "kit aircraft parts"? Will he have to pay a duty or tax of any kind to either the Canadian or US governments?
I am pretty sure that the project has never been registered.

Will he need any particular paperwork (bill of sale) to show that he owns the material?

The seller has told him that he can rent a U-Haul truck in Edmonton and drive it to the US. (Iowa) Does that sound correct?

This adventure is complicated by the fact that he does not have a US passport, and I think it will take him 4-6 weeks, at the best, to get one. He hopes otherwise. He wants to fly to Edmonton, rent a truck and haul it home.
Looks to me to be about a 3 day trip.

Any thoughts?

Tim Hickey

It's do-able ... but he will need a passport !
Several people have done the U-Haul truck trip - be very careful
about brakes and other safety items on these trucks - many problems !!

He should make arrangements with, and pay, a Customs Brokerage,
to do the required paperwork. They can advise him on the procedure.
There is NO duty on Aircraft Parts..... but you need to quote the
section & paragraph (chapter & verse) for Customs - hence the broker !
Do this well in advance - otherwise, it will end up in Customs lockup
- sometimes for weeks !! :-(

To build it in the USA - I think he will need photos & documentation
(builders log) of the work done so far ... AND - a copy of the original
FAA required Bill of Sale form to the current owner, and one to himself ...
otherwise he will not be able to register it as a GlassAir ... it will have to
be "built from parts" !! :-(

I'm sure you have cautioned him about checking the quality of any
fiberglass work already done - difficult to tell if it's good !!

Last time I rented for a border cross only Penske would allow their trucks across. Better check their rules.

I had a friend get a passport in two weeks recently with no "rush" fee. Just std application.

I just went thru the whole "Built from Parts" hassle with the FAA. Several iterations back and forth with our friends in Oklahoma City. Get a FAA Form 8050-2 bill of sale for everyone in the whole chain of ownership including to your friend and it will be a lot easier process.

I'll change the heading to stay on subject here.
Just want to give a heads up to folks purchasing from an estate.
FAA has a FORM for that too!
Something like 2007 they came up with an 'Heir-in-Law' form.
If you purchase from an estate you have to have this form or a Court certified document stating that 'the executor is is actually the Executor'.
I've been stuck on this since February with an 'unavailable' executor!
Paul Michel

Thanks for the tips, guys. My friend intends to proceed with this adventure, and if anything truly interesting transpires, I will post it here later. I fear he is heading for a minefield, but hope springs eternal.

All Uhaul trucks that I've seen in canada are registered and licenced in Arizona and they were the cheapest one way truck to the USA last time I used one to cross the border.
Ken

I have sent three Murphy's south by road. All that was needed by the owner was a bill of sale. As stated before there is no duty on aircraft . All Uhauls are registered in Arizona as they issue permanent Plates. They do this to skip on taxes and safety checks. You can tell the difference between US and Canadian trucks by the pictures on the side. They try to keep the scenes on the right sides of the boarder. If you call ahead by a few weeks and ask for a US truck one way they can find one. We had the problem that one was booked that way and they did not have a US truck to go south. In the end they just gave us Canadian truck no extra charge.

Sean

Update on my friend and the GlassAir project purchase in Canada.

I have sent copies of all your replies to my question about the border crossing to my friend, and after waffling for the last 10 days he finally decided yesterday that the trip was just too far, and had too many problems for him to master, so he called the current owner to tell him that he would not be able to purchase the project. In a twist of fate the seller said that for expenses he would transport the kit down here to Iowa, and so the project is back on. My friend is 77, and after he decided to give it up, I thought that maybe that would be for the best. But with this twist it looks like he is back into airplane building. He has built two GlassAirs, and one Kit Fox. This will be number 4. He spent two years trying to make a Buick V-6 work in the second GlassAir, so you could almost say that he has built 4 already.

Thanks to everyone for the input!

See You at OSH

Tim Hickey