How bad will an accident affect my chances of getting insurance

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Pat_elliott

Filing Flight Plan
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Pat_elliott
Had an accident a couple of weeks ago, Totaled my 175. ran out of runway in the backcountry of Idaho. I won't go into the details.

I'm curious what will this do to my chances of getting another plane.
Commercial IFR Pilot, 1250hrs, Late 40's.
I'm thinking I done with the bush pilot thing for a while, looking at a pa24-180,.
 
I hurt my airplane last year on a landing, couple thousand dollars on a 150, and my rates didn't go up.
 
Wow! Now that's a first post!

I suppose we'll have to wait for someone to post who's had an accident and currently getting insured. Personally I think you could get insured but might not be worth full coverage. Might have to drop hull and stick with liability.
 
Up to a point you can always get insurance, but at what cost. After repeated accidents the insurance company may shut you off.

They may limit you to stay out of back country airports or require you to take a back country flying course.

Expect a slightly higher premium, maybe 10% or so.

Best answer is, "talk to your broker"
 
BillTIZ said:
Up to a point you can always get insurance, but at what cost. After repeated accidents the insurance company may shut you off.

They may limit you to stay out of back country airports or require you to take a back country flying course.

Expect a slightly higher premium, maybe 10% or so.

Best answer is, "talk to your broker"
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Yep, gotta love a broker! That's what they do all day. You'll be alright. Glad you're ok, and sorry about your plane. :)
 
Your insurance may not go up at all. You will have to wait abs see. I had a 60k claim and it went down at next renewal.

No other company will insure you for some time, probably 3-5 years as for whatever reason the insurance companies look out for each other and want the company that experienced the loss to recoup some of their losses though premium. Kinda weird I know.
 
accidents are why you have insurance - ****e happens
 
Probably won't be a huge factor. Disclose what happened and move forward.
 
I rear ended a soccer mom with my Goldwing and my insurance went down a smidge. I totaled my convertible (talk about a tale of woe) and my insurance rates didn't budge. I doubt your insurance will go up at all. Really totaling an airplane isn't that bad. It gets bad when you total the occupants.
 
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Pat_elliott said:
Had an accident a couple of weeks ago, Totaled my 175. ran out of runway in the backcountry of Idaho. I won't go into the details.

I'm curious what will this do to my chances of getting another plane.
Commercial IFR Pilot, 1250hrs, Late 40's.
I'm thinking I done with the bush pilot thing for a while, looking at a pa24-180,.
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OK, was any enforcement or certification action taken by the FAA? That may make a difference. If your brakes failed on rollout, the insurance carrier will view that differently from miscalculating or misjudging your landing.

From conversations I've had with other pilots filing claims, premiums tend not to increase from accidents, but once a pilot has too many claims, their rates don't go up; they just get dropped.
 
Brad Z said:
From conversations I've had with other pilots filing claims, premiums tend not to increase from accidents, but once a pilot has too many claims, their rates don't go up; they just get dropped.
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Having had this discussion with both aviation and home/auto insurance folks, I would say that in most cases the rates themselves don't necessarily go up after a claim, but what happens is that if you had any kind of discount for no previous claims or accidents, then you lose that discount. So, if this is your first ever claim, you may very well see a slight increase in overall premium. There are of course other factors involved like increased experience in type that may offset the increase which would explain why some have seen rates actually decrease when renewing after a claim.

I've seen that with USAA and Avemco.

For the OP, your best bet on getting coverage on a replacement aircraft is likely through the company you are already with. With a recent claim (especially within one year), you will find that many companies may not even quote you and the ones that do will probably be higher than what a pilot with no claims might get.

I personally experienced that when my broker shopped around for coverage on the Baron when 6 months before I had the claim with Avemco for the engine teardown and reassembly on the 170.
 
USAA doesn't write aircraft insurance, they're just a broker, and a pretty crappy one at that.
 
flyingron said:
USAA doesn't write aircraft insurance, they're just a broker, and a pretty crappy one at that.
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I've been pretty happy with my results from USAA for my aircraft (and auto) insurance. Why do you feel they're lacking?
 
flyingron said:
USAA doesn't write aircraft insurance, they're just a broker, and a pretty crappy one at that.
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I don't use them for aircraft insurance, but I've used USAA for everything else for 15 years. They have always treated me VERY well.
 
Fearless Tower said:
With a recent claim (especially within one year), you will find that many companies may not even quote you and the ones that do will probably be higher than what a pilot with no claims might get.
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No direct experience with this, but I've read this before (here, or another pilot board...I can't remember). The explanation given was that it's sort of a gentleman's agreement among insurance company to allow the insurance company that took the loss (paid the claim) a chance to recoup costs (collecting the premium) for a few years.

No idea if it's true.
 
Pat_elliott said:
Had an accident a couple of weeks ago, Totaled my 175. ran out of runway in the backcountry of Idaho. I won't go into the details.

I'm curious what will this do to my chances of getting another plane.
Commercial IFR Pilot, 1250hrs, Late 40's.
I'm thinking I done with the bush pilot thing for a while, looking at a pa24-180,.
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First post....

Welcome to POA.....:cheers:...

Sorry about your bird.. Glad you are ok....
 
I'm curious what will this do to my chances of getting another plane.
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Even if you aren't using them, I suggest calling Avemco. You will talk to an underwriter, not a clerk or a salesperson, and my experience is that they are really straight shooters who know their business. The person you are talking to will probably be listed here: https://www.avemco.com/information/people.aspx

I'm not doing any business with Avemco right now, but have in the past and I have found them to have a great corporate culture. I think the past president, Jim Lauerman, is responsible. I have enjoyed and benefited from talking to him at Oshkosh.
 
C182P said:
I've been pretty happy with my results from USAA for my aircraft (and auto) insurance. Why do you feel they're lacking?
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I don't have any problem with their auto or even home insurance, but they are a crappy general agent for aviation insurance. They sole out the entire membership to USAIG a few years back which worked fine for a while but then USAIG decided to just dump anything they didn't understand (like Navions) no matter what your experience of history was. The USAA gave a lacklusster attempt to find another underwirter, but was woefiully inadequate at doing so.
I ended up going elsewhere with agents who had a Freaking clue what they were doing.
 
Fearless Tower said:
I don't use them for aircraft insurance, but I've used USAA for everything else for 15 years. They have always treated me VERY well.
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Then you have no clue what you're talking about then do you? They are lousy for aircraft insurance. Auto quite good. Homeowners adequate. Most everything else, you can do better elsewehere. The General Agency (which covers aircraft) is incompetent..
 
flyingron said:
Then you have no clue what you're talking about then do you? They are lousy for aircraft insurance. Auto quite good. Homeowners adequate. Most everything else, you can do better elsewehere. The General Agency (which covers aircraft) is incompetent..
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Damn man....who peed in your Wheaties?
 
Call Avemco, talked with a broker. He confirmed that my best bet was with my existing company and that avemco wouldn't be interested until at least a year had passed. AOPA hasn't gotten back to me.

I've been using Falcon for the last 13 years, great service, no complaints. They got back with me today. A 35k hull value pa24-180 will cost me $1600, they want 12hrs dual and 20 solo before I can carry passengers. Out of 1200 PIC I have 48hrs in various retracts, so I'm not real surprised. but I hope it will drop after the first year.

for a data point my 1960 175 with a hull value of 35k was $505 a year.
also interesting to note, the 175 was underwritten by Starr, the new quote is with London.
 
Pat_elliott said:
Call Avemco, talked with a broker. He confirmed that my best bet was with my existing company and that avemco wouldn't be interested until at least a year had passed. AOPA hasn't gotten back to me.
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Avemco doesn't have brokers. They are direct underwriters.
 
I know a few pilots that have had an accident,and Avemco picked them up,they seem happy with the co.
 
I had a gear up in my bonanza 30 years ago and my insurance stayed the same after the plane was repaired. Had a autopilot malfunction (Feb 2013, trim on IMC ILS approach in the same bonanza went to -9 before autopilot disconnected), busted out back windows and required full inspection of all structural members and bolts once I finished the approach. Insurance premium has remained the same. Hurricane Sandy flipped my C 150 on its back (totaled - tail tie down 10 rivets pulled out of the tail cone) and my insurance for a C 172 trainer was close to the price I was paying for the C 150 with double the hull value.
 
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