FROM
BOYD MUNRO
WARNING
ABOUT REGISTRATION OF AIRCRAFT
IF
YOU ARE AN AIRCRAFT OWNER, DON'T BE RAILROADED!
If
you own an aircraft, don't be railroaded into
transferring its Registration to anyone else.
On 21st September CASA sent a
misleading letter to all aircraft owners. The letter says
"The
new Regulation means that if you are not
controlling the maintenance of your aircraft,
you are required to transfer your certificate of
registration to the person who is."
That
sentence is seriously misleading.
If you own an aircraft and pay
for its maintenance, HOLD YOUR HORSES.
The new regulation is CASR 47.
If you feel even the slightest temptation
to transfer your CofR to someone else, read CASR
47 and ignore the letter.
If you still feel tempted, engage a
lawyer.
If
you pay for the maintenance of your
aircraft, then with few exceptions you control
it. The
new law does not require that you personally do
the maintenance, or that you supervise it.
It only means that you must CONTROL it.
If you pay for the maintenance of your
aircraft, it is almost certain that you control
it.
Some
people have been told that CASR 47 means that
they have to transfer their CofR to a
maintenance organization or to the operator who
offers their aircraft on line.
It means no such thing.
To transfer your CofR to a maintenance
organization or operator would be more risky
than to hand over a pile of blank, undated,
signed cheques.
The
person who holds the CofR controls the
maintenance.
Once you transfer your CofR, the new
holder can decide what maintenance to do and
when. He
might, for instance, decide to do maintenance
which is only required for aerobatic flight,
even though you do not do aerobatics.
He might decide to do maintenance which
is not required at all but which he thinks is
desirable.
There
is the opposite risk, too.
The person who holds the CofR may decide
NOT to do maintenance as soon as you would like
it done. If
he operates a maintenance organization, the
people who have been silly enough to transfer
their CofR are now "captive customers".
They cannot go anywhere else.
Other customers who hold their own CofR
are free to shop around, and they will naturally
go ahead of the captives in the queue.
You might find that your aircraft is
grounded for a month before its Annual
Inspection can even be started.
There
is yet another risk.
If you transfer your CofR to someone
else, there is no way you can FORCE him to
transfer it back to you.
You can write a contract requiring him to
do so, but it may take years to enforce that
contract. There
is no way that you can apply to CASA as the
owner and require that CASA transfer the CofR
back to you or to someone else.
If you transfer your CofR to a person,
you are at risk of that person dying or going
bankrupt. If
you transfer your CofR to a company, you are at
risk of that company being sold or wound up.
Imagine
what might happen if you fell on hard times. The
bank may be threatening you with bankruptcy
unless you clear your debts within a week. But you cannot sell your
aircraft because someone else holds the CofR.
In THEORY that means nothing - but in
practice you can't expect to sell your aircraft
while someone else holds the CofR.
Just call a dealer or two and ask whether
they'd buy it.
The person to whom you transferred your
CofR may have died, gone bankrupt, no longer be
your friend, or be off in Nepal on a trekking
holiday for his long-service leave.
If
you transfer your CofR to a company, the level
of Fines goes up five times.
The maximum Fine goes from $5,000 to
$25000. Why
do it?
EVEN
IF YOU HAPPILY HAND OUT BLANK UNSIGNED CHEQUES,
be very wary about transferring your CofR.
The Oxford English Dictionary (volume XIII, page 515) defines <registrant One who registers (in various sense) esp. one who thereby gains a particular entitlement.
CASR 47 has this little gem of a definition
owner of an
aircraft means the person responsible for its
maintenance and airworthiness (whether the
person is the aircraft's legal owner or because
of an arrangement that makes the person
responsible for its maintenance and
airworthiness).
I
have sent you this fax at my own expense.
I do not want to waste my money sending
you stuff you don't want - if you don't want to
hear from me, e-mail me or fax me on the
addresses below and I'll take you off the list.
If
you have an e-mail address which you really use,
please send me an e-mail to newemail@airsafety.com.au
saying just your name and postcode.
(Don't fax your e-mail address because
that just says you have an e-mail address but
don't really use it!).
This fax has been sent to about a quarter
of the private aircraft owners in Australia.
If you think the information is of value,
please ask any other private owners or pilots
you know to e-mail me or fax me so I can add him
or her to my list.
You
can find out more about this problem if you are
on the internet - go to www.airsafety.com.au/
Boyd
Munro
PO
Box 172 Balmain NSW 2041
e-mail bmunro@airsafety.com.au
fax 02 9225 9127 www.airsafety.com.au