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Hello All,
I’m a pilot in Canada and currently own and fly a cirrus. I’ve been very interested in owning an Icon for a couple years now and have questions. Which model Icon can I register in Canada, can it be the Light sport? I live in Saskatchewan(central) where would I get my maintenance and annuals done? Training? Also, what’s the state of the company, are they currently in production and operational.

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Hey Paul,

I can answer a couple of questions for you. There is no light sport category in Canada. There are a handful of Icon’s registered with Transport Canada under a special certificate of airworthiness. There are others that have left it registered in the US with an N number.

As far as I know, there is only one model of Icon, the A5. You can plan training in many locations in the US. As far as maintenance and annuals within Canada, that is more of a challenge right now.

Hope that helps,
Ted

Hello All,
I’m a pilot in Canada and currently own and fly a cirrus. I’ve been very interested in owning an Icon for a couple years now and have questions. Which model Icon can I register in Canada, can it be the Light sport? I live in Saskatchewan(central) where would I get my maintenance and annuals done? Training? Also, what’s the state of the company, are they currently in production and operational.

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For anyone following this - sorry for all the edits and possible notifications you may be getting - took a while to get everything in here...

Hi Paul,

To expand on Ted's answer, I can confirm that there is only one A5 model (with some options) and that there is no LSA direct support in Canada, so "C-registering" the plane requires a special certificate.

As for the rest of this answer, I'm no lawyer, not an import specialist, and you should treat my answer as being categorically as reliable as a magic-eight-ball (with a lot more words on the floaty bit).

C-Reg (Registering it in Canada)

When considering having an A5 in Canada, you should also consider that a Canadian registered plane must be insured by an insurer that is "on the ground" in Canada, and this can be very expensive - there are almost no insurers in Canada who "like" this plane, and they show it in their rates ($5k+ per MONTH if you are a low-hours pilot without a lot of seaplane time). You also need to get a Special Airworthiness on it since the LSA category doesn't exist in Canada.

With respect to your own creds, you of course then can fly the plane with your Canadian pilot license freely within Canada (and the US, and anywhere else you can get the plane to, but check local requirements for entry, etc., etc.).

N-Reg (Leaving the plane US registered - US plane tail numbers start with N)

Leaving the A5 N-registered (US) on the other hand will require you (if you are not a dual or straight-up US citizen) to have an actual US-based entity "own" the plane - usually done by having the plane held in a trust (FAA requires a US entity to own a N-reg plane). There are firms that focus primarily on this (for example, International Air Services) using a standard template trust agreement where they own the plane but you are the sole operator. This has always been viewed as a bit of a bendy handling of the FAA requirement, but the general consensus over many years via anecdotes and experiences shared is that the FAA is largely ok with this - especially when it facilitates trade surplus (American company selling goods to other nations).

US-reg in Canada has a couple of other things to consider: for one, you cannot under Canadian air law have a US-reg plane in Canada for more than 90 days a year (which includes sitting in a hangar on the ground) - but this is largely speculated to be driven by a concern by CRA (Canadian IRS) that Canadians will use N-reg to avoid importing the plane, arguing that it "lives" in the US. If you straight-up import it (as N-reg) when you bring it in (i.e. tell Canadian Border Services Agency - CBSA - that you are importing an airplane) and pay the GST on it (5% of the Canadian-dollar equivalent of the purchase price) then you are addressing a primary driver for the 90-day concern - like the FAA above, If Canada gets their tax revenue, then Transport Canada isn't generally motivated to go out of its way to interrupt CRA's flow of revenue.

Another thing to be aware of is that the Canadian government recently instituted a luxury tax for certain personal purchases including airplanes over $100K CAD. For this reason, you may wish to make it part of a commercial endeavour if possible, however that's hard for a LSA aircraft (wherever registered) - you can't use it directly for commercial purposes (tours, local air taxi, etc.) so it would have to be for demos, rental, instruction, or for example because you want to manufacture after-market accessories for the plane. However - if you are going to use it for rental, the Canadian gov't is going to want it C-registered and insured here to Canadian standards, so rental as a commercial undertaking on N-reg is likely not going to really work. Not sure if that would apply to having a sales business for demoing it.

If you wish to fly the plane outside Canada - i.e. in the US or Bahamas, both of which are really fun!! - then you are going to need a US pilot's license or foreign validation - you cannot fly a N-reg plane outside of Canada on a Canadian pilot license alone. Luckily, the US and Canada are the only two countries where, if you have a pilot's license on one side of the border, you can get your full equivalent license on the other side by writing a short test and getting a medical in the other country. Yes - you can get your full FAA PPL or CPL or ATP in the US by going to a FSDO (FAA flight services district office) and writing a test, then getting a rep from the FAA to sign off on your application. If you don't want to do that, you can still get a foreign validation of your license for use in the US (you can apply online and it fulfills typically in several days despite the site stating "weeks"), but this is generally intended for temporary use for folks who wish to ferry a plane out of the US and this will not allow you to fly elsewhere. If you really want the life-long freedom of flying an N-reg plane wherever, then do the full conversion (as you then have it "for life" - someday this could get harder and/or become unavailable, though this is unlikely given how much airline traffic there is between the US and Canada).

Servicing an N-Reg in Canada (with specifics for A5)

For service, you can do all servicing in Canada except an annual, but keep in mind that signing off on an N-reg plane must be done by an AME who is certified to do/oversee N-reg work (there are lots around since N-reg planes are not uncommon for US cottagers in summer, etc.).

But yes, once a year, you will definitely need an FAA inspection of the plane, and that needs to be done in the US by an FAA certified A&P with inspection creds.

For the ICON A5, the 100-hour and the Annual are identical, so you likely will want to always do them in the US since then if you hit 200 hours, say, then the respective 100-hour you need to do will reset your annual clock as well and vice versa. If you do a 100-hour in Canada, you'll still need an annual done in the US.

Finally, consider resale value. N-reg planes generally hold their value better because the requirements of servicing and maintaining N-reg planes are well understood, most buyers of GA planes are in the US (so it removes a need to re-reg), and the plane will keep its original manufactured registration status with respect to type, etc.

Training

For training, if you buy new, ICON includes training with your plane. If you buy it after market, ICON can still provide training, but you should check with them if they will use your plane, or use one of their own - in the end it's not that big a difference.

I hope this helps!

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Looks like you’ve done some serious homework on the subject Dathan. Thanks for sharing.

Wouldn't the HST be 13% if you were importing it?

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Looks like you’ve done some serious homework on the subject Dathan. Thanks for sharing.

Wouldn't the HST be 13% if you were importing it?

No, sorry - I just edited my answer (for the 17th time... ) to change HST to GST. You are subject to the GST only, which is 5% - this is one of those cases where they are not synonymous (i.e. not both applicable, which 95% of the time they both are).

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Got it. Thanks for clarifying.