............ but I'm more interested in how you all managed to knock your companies off the "nope... Liability" position. Obviously many companies just absolutely will not budge yet others shrug and essentially say add us to your policy. What a gulf between those positions!
Thanks for a great thread so far.
The same issue arises in the parts side of aviation things too.....It is a ingrained corporation liability culture that has festered over the decades and grew legs of its own until everyone in those businesses are trained to say NO.
For instance... You can walk into any of the thousands of NAPA ( National Aviation Parts Assoc)
stores around the world and try and buy a GE 4509 light bulb... You say it is for a farm tractor and they will sell it to ya.. but tell them it is for a plane and they will promptly kick you out of the store while screaming NO...
Or.. Take my experimental that is powered by a Ford racing engine.. When it was on display at Oshkosh at the EAA's Airventure ( which Ford is the major sponsor of)... My plane sat just a few hundred feet from the Ford display building while the Ford tri motor flew overhead all week...
Probably tens of thousands of people had viewed it so far that week and this was just Wed of a 7 day show. Also, people dress very casually and when a couple of "suits" walked up and started asking questions I became curious... Now, keep in mind I had already had a few well dressed guys and gals show up a day or so earlier but they turned out to be CNN and NBC producers and they asked if the plane could be in their backdrop / fade in- fade out shot for their live feeds...
So, fast forward a couple of hours and these "suits" come back demanding I remove my plane from the EAA grounds... Seems they were from the Ford legal dept and they absolutely did NOT want Ford associated with any kind of aviation reference....
So, here is a company that sponsors the event, had built 10's of thousands of bombers for WW2 and now they have their panties in a wad over one guy with a Ford motor in an experimental plane... Long story short,, I told them to *uck off and I not only had the top cowl off to display the motor, I removed the bottom one too to give all the people a better look at the Ford motor..... They did walk past several more times during the show but never had the balls to confront me...
Another example... The big speed shop retailers like Summit racing and Jegs will sell you parts for 300MPH dragsters every day of the week.. Those will kill you faster then a experimental plane ... But , just call up and try to order a trick part and tell them its for a plane and they will hang up the phone in 1.2 seconds.... Go Figure...
Take away message is .... Remove the perceived liability stigma and the world will be a better place.. IMHO..