Michael, I'm a bit confused by your affection towards an aircraft so prone towards trying to kill you.

My understanding is that two out of three of nation of registry, nation of pilot's cert, and nation you're flying in have to match.

So, you'd need to get a Liberian pilot's cert and keep that up as well, assuming they are part of ICAO and the FAA recognizes and reciprocates. If they start letting you get away with doing things unsafe in the FAA's eyes, I imagine that loophole would close.

The eclipse would presumably make a GREAT experimental exhibition airplane for airshow work. Gut the thing and put in avionics for Day VFR only. A 2-3 ship Eclipse airshow act would get attention. Exp-Exh is pretty liberal - much more so than Exp-AB

The eclipse would presumably make a GREAT experimental exhibition airplane for airshow work. Gut the thing and put in avionics for Day VFR only. A 2-3 ship Eclipse airshow act would get attention. Exp-Exh is pretty liberal - much more so than Exp-AB

The original Eclipse had windshields requiring replacement every 100 hours, nuts!

Here is the question - does FAA have the authority to inspect and pass judgement on airworthiness of a foreign-registered aircraft operating in US airspace? If not, there is a bit of a conundrum: FAA can't ground the plane since it's foreign registry, and foreign authority can't inspect the plane since it's not there.

The FAA has determined that its airworthiness certification standards are equivalent to those of 29 other countries. In order to expedite the import/export process, an international agreement, called the Bilateral Airworthiness Agreement (BAA), has been established. Aircraft inspected and issued airworthiness certificates by the BAA countries are also considered to comply with U.S. standards and vice versa (this does not mean that an airworthiness certificate from a BAA country can substitute for a U.S. airworthiness certificate). This reciprocity means that establishing airworthiness when importing and exporting production aircraft is streamlined considerably. This does not apply to non-production-type civil aircraft such as homebuilt (experimental) or ex-military aircraft, which qualify for a special airworthiness certificate.

The following countries have Bilateral Airworthiness Agreements with the United States: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The best way to determine if a type-certificated aircraft based and registered in a BAA country is still in airworthy condition is to obtain an Export Certificate of Airworthiness (ECA). Sometimes referred to as an "Export C of A," an ECA is issued by the foreign country's civil aviation authority (CAA) and certifies that the aircraft meets the airworthiness standards prescribed for certification in that country.

I think this is what applies (lifted from the import/export area of AOPA. I know we are not talking about Im/Ex, but this is likely what applies when granting airworthiness to foreign airplanes in US airspace...):

I don't think this is what's relevant here. This passage talks about importing/exporting, so an aircraft certified in Canada (for example) does not need to be certified again in US. The question is, can FAA conduct a ramp check and examine logbooks of Canadian-registered aircraft while it's in US?

I would guess it non BAA countries can't fly in the U.S. at all. No facts, just my suspicion.

I would guess it non BAA countries can't fly in the U.S. at all. No facts, just my suspicion.

Interesting... so could you get the Eclipse certified in Mexico and keep flying in the US?

In seeing posts from owners here on BeechTalk, it sounds like many countries have more stringent requirements than the US, including countries you might expect to be pretty lax.