My view from the sideline:
Synopsis:
American School of Aviation, Inc. is a California corporation with its president and other corporate officer(s) are not U.S. citizen.
Title 14 CFR Part 47 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) governs the requirement related to the civil aircraft registration in the US
Part 47.3 stipulates Registration required.
Part 47.5 defines Applicants.
Part 47.7 defines U.S. citizens and resident aliens with respect to civil aircraft registration.
Part 47.9 defines “Corporations not U.S. citizen”.
Part 47.9(f) stipulates thrice annual report requirement by the registrant to the FAA.
Analysis:
All ASA aircraft (30 in all) are currently registered under FAR Part 47.7 and issued aircraft registration certificate bearing “Corporation” instead of its true and factual status of its corporate entity as “Foreign Corporation”.
In the FAA AC Form 8050-1 Aircraft Registration Application, there is a specific box to be checked off for Non-citizen Corporation and provided along with “Certification” section for the applicant’s certification for a non-citizen corporation. If these sections were properly completed in the ASA aircraft registration application, all of its registration then should have been issued under Part 47.9 with the respective registration certificate bearing ”Foreign corporation”
Conclusion:
If ASA has made erroneous entry in its aircraft registration application and submitted to the FAA Aircraft Registry knowingly or not knowingly and obtained its registration certificates, then all of the ASA aircraft are not registered under Part 47.9 and not in compliance with Part 47.9(f) requirement. This ipso facto invalidates all of its registrations under FAR 47.41(a) (ii) and requires ASA to surrender all of its invalidated registration certificate in accordance with FAR 47.43 (b).
All ASA aircraft are to be grounded immediately if its current registration is found to be invalid on the foregoing premise stated. Aircraft operation without having required documents on board, aircraft registration certificate is one of among them is a Federal code violation subject to FAA enforcement action including an imposition of a civil penalty for each and every violations committed. If you fly twice with an invalid registration, that’s two counts of violation and the flight log and pilot’s logbook to show that for the record easily later on. If any of the ASA students are still flying the ASA airplane, you should think twice before stepping into the plane next time.
Well, it sure beats me why this fundamental infraction of the FAR evaded the FAA inspector’s repeated scrutiny for so long. I guess sometimes things can be seen better when you step back a little and observe them from distance. The old saying “. Don’t Miss the Forest for the Trees.” rings so true here.
I could see things pretty well from where I stand in the sideline.
Till next time,
Echo Yankee, over & out!
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Open Letter to the FAA Flight Standard District Office, Fresno, CA
James Murray- Operations Supervisor
David Lehman – Airworthiness Supervisor
In Re: American School of Aviation
Dear Messrs Murray and Lehman:
In the FAA Aircraft Registry records, there appears to exist conflicting records that are likely to constitute a violation in compliance with the statutory requirement relating to civil aircraft registry in the US.
Synopsis:
American School of Aviation, Inc. is a California corporation with its president and other corporate officer(s) are not U.S. citizen.
Title 14 CFR Part 47 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) governs the requirement related to the civil aircraft registration in the US
Part 47.3 stipulates Registration required.
Part 47.5 defines Applicants.
Part 47.7 defines U.S. citizens and resident aliens with respect to civil aircraft registration.
Part 47.9 defines “Corporations not U.S. citizen”.
Part 47.9 (f) stipulates thrice annual report requirement by the registrant to the FAA.
Analysis:
All ASA aircraft except one (30 before 8/04/08 down to 11 as of 8/14/2008 ) are currently registered under FAR Part 47.7 and issued aircraft registration certificate bearing “Corporation” instead of its true and factual status of its corporate entity as “Foreign Corporation”. In the FAA AC Form 8050-1 Aircraft Registration Application, there is a specific box to be checked off for Non-citizen Corporation and provided along with “Certification” section for the applicant’s certification for a non-citizen corporation. If these sections were properly completed in the ASA aircraft registration application, all of its registration then should have been issued under Part 47.9 with the respective registration certificate bearing ”Foreign corporation”
Conclusion:
If ASA has made erroneous entry in its aircraft registration application and submitted to the FAA Aircraft Registry knowingly or not knowingly and obtained its registration certificate, then the ASA aircraft are not registered under Part 47.9 and not in compliance with Part 47.9(f) requirement. This ipso facto invalidates all of its registrations under FAR 47.41(a) ( 8 ) (ii) and requires ASA to surrender all of its invalidated registration certificate immediately in accordance with FAR 47.43 (b).
One of the school owners had publicy stated their school received 109 surveillance visits from your office in 2007, yet why this blatant aircraft registration violation eluded the filed inspectors scrutiny is beyond me.
There exists an ample evidence based on flight activities taking place recently at Hayward, Modesto and elsewhere to indicate the school is still operating under the guise of new satellite base after its 141 school certification has been long presumed to be suspended if not revoked already.
In view of the matter affecting the welfare and interests of all those victimized students as well as that of local aviation community, it would be most appropriate that your office offers a public announcement in connection with the ASA matter as soon as aircraft registration investigation is completed.
All eyes are on your prudent and swift enforcement action.
Respectfully submitted.
Echo Yankee
I'm over at California Airways, and we've turned down a few airplanes. Most of them have missing logs, no AD compliance etc. 6697L was picked up and then returned due to numerous issues that we will not tolerate. Only one we have now that is of any worth is 1482M.
Amplification and correction from the sideline:
It has been since discovered that N1482M has an aicrafrt regiostration bearing "Foreign Corporation" on its registration certificate issued on10/04/2007. The rest of the ASA aircraft are still registered as "Corporation".
Echo Yankee, over & out!
My observation from the sideline:
18 ASA Aircraft just changed hands in last two days.
FAA records indicate 13 ASA aircraft changed hands on August 04 2008 and 5 additional ASA aircraft changed hands on August 05, 2008.
While the students and other creditor’s lawyers are trying to secure the assets of ASA, Prince and Reny are moving fast and step ahead to evade from their reach. As shown in the following FAA records, the duo has succeeded in selling 18 of the 30 ASA aircraft thus far.
Considering the time required for the paper work process at the FAA office, all transactions were likely to be taken place and consummated at or around the end of June 2008. Based on this calculation, the transaction took place in the recent weeks won’t show up in the FAA record until sometime in September or October. It is quite possible that by now all the remaining aircraft changed hands as well.
Following 13 aircraft are now registered to:
Commercial Lending Resource, Inc.
2082 Michelson Dr., Suite 100
Irvine, CA 92612-1212
Cessna 152 N 25840
Cessna 152 N 4644Q
Cessna 152 N 48425
Cessna 172N N 1948F
Cessna 172N N 3318E
Cessna 172N N 4864D
Cessna 172N N 5488D
Cessna 172N N 6349D
Cessna 172N N 733AD
Cessna 172N N 733UG
Cessna 172N N 734MN
Cessna 172N N 734SV
Cessna 172N N 739BL
Following 5 aircraft are now registered to:
Spring Aviation
PO B ox 4120
Portland, OR 97208-4120
Cessna 152 N 4940
Cessna 152 N 68141
Cessna 152 N 757XY
Beech 76 N 111BV
Beech 76 N 6697L
12 remaining aircraft still registered to ASA
Cessna 152 N 48637
Cessna 152 N 94185
Cessna 152 N 64994
Cessna 172S N 1482M (A/C registration issued to Foreign Corporation)
Cessna 172N N 7352J
Diamond DA20C1 N 991CT
Diamond DA20C1 N 992CT
Piper PA28R200 N 15546
Piper PA28R180 N 7526J
Piper PA28140 N 15080
Piper PA28161 N 47389
Beech 76 N 7774T
I really hope the plaintiff’s lawyers all pull together to move the court for an issuance of immediate injunction against the debtor defendants from disposition of any business assets, and additionally seek a pre-judgement lien against all ASA aircraft and file the same with the FAA Aircraft Registry to prevent the debtor from selling the remaining airplanes.
Furthermore, move the court to nullify all the recent aircraft title transfers on the ground that such transfers were made with an actual intent to hinder, defraud, or delay creditors, and additionally on the ground of prior invalid registration.
Moreover, loge the criminal fraud charges against the owners of ASA with the Merced County Sheriff’s department immediately and move the Superior Court of California, County of Merced to issue an arrest warrant for the school owners to be taken into custody immediately.
Swift and aggressive actions are more than needed at this juncture.
Echo Yankee, over & out!
FAA should simply cancel the registration, impound the aircraft, and send Prince and Reny to jail. It is really sad and shocking that a federal agency like FAA have been unable to detect fraud taking place right under their nose. Had they done their job well, we wouldn't have been cheated out of our funds either. But I guess they took ASA word for it on the registration form, but once they will know that it is lie or falsified claim, they will take action. I hope they will file fraud charges and send Prince and Reny to jail.