How much tail wheel time for realistic insurance?

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Brad W

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How much conventional gear time does a person need.... generally &/or in type...for insurance to be reasonable?

I have 10.1 total conventional, all dual...and all spread out...never enough at one shot for me to master it and get my endorsement
and it was all a long time ago

Most of my time was in a 7AC Champ. (I also have time in a 140 + a smidge in a 120 and a smidge in a 7GCBC Citabria)

The most fun I ever had in an airplane might have been that Champ. Anyway, sometimes I think about getting something like that and getting back into it. relatively cheap, and economical, and available

I don't have a hangar so it would have to live outside, and I'm very rusty and not current (a little over 320 total time)...but ignoring those two things, I'm wondering if insurance would be a show stopper for such a dream.
 
It you start small (like owning a C140, or a Champ) 5 hour's dual if you have the endorsement, commonly does it.
 
Depends on the plane. A light 2 seat taildragger insured for under $75k won't be a showstopper. You start getting bigger, heavier and more expensive and it might be a factor.
 
Flawed question. Tail dragger insurance is never realistic.
 
Brad W said:
How much conventional gear time does a person need.... generally &/or in type...for insurance to be reasonable?

I have 10.1 total conventional, all dual...and all spread out...never enough at one shot for me to master it and get my endorsement
and it was all a long time ago

Most of my time was in a 7AC Champ. (I also have time in a 140 + a smidge in a 120 and a smidge in a 7GCBC Citabria)

The most fun I ever had in an airplane might have been that Champ. Anyway, sometimes I think about getting something like that and getting back into it. relatively cheap, and economical, and available

I don't have a hangar so it would have to live outside, and I'm very rusty and not current (a little over 320 total time)...but ignoring those two things, I'm wondering if insurance would be a show stopper for such a dream.
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I needed [5] hours dual in type to solo my 170. And insurance was pretty cheap, but hull value wasn't that high either. I had 80 hours tailwheel PIC.
 
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my primary question would be for something like a Champ

(but I guess I also wonder the same thing about a taildragger kit, like an RV-14 for example. dreaming about a retirement project in a couple years)
 
Avemco says the max discount comes with 100 hours of time in type. I think they can insure starting at around 5 hours (in type), but that may have changed.
 
Most of the people I'm working with say their insurance was asking for 10 hours time in type for lower time pilots. Higher, it varies on the plane.
 
Brad W said:
I don't have a hangar so it would have to live outside, and I'm very rusty and not current (a little over 320 total time)...but ignoring those two things, I'm wondering if insurance would be a show stopper for such a dream.
Click to expand...
Probably $800-1500 a year for the first year depending on how much hull value. I'm paying roughly $2500/yr to give dual only in my plane.
 
Had to do 10 dual for Avemco. Instructor needed 1? hr in type but had 10k hours and flew tailwheel pterodactyls.

Other companies wanted 100 tw time.

Experimental STOL. Max hull they offer is $200k for $6k/yr.
 
Just got quoted for an aerobatic tailwheel. They wanted the specific qualifications for the instructor and he is named in the quote. I need 5 dual with him, and 10 hours total in make/model before flying anyone else (so 5 dual and 5 solo).

I have about 100 hours tailwheel

Quote was about 5% of hull figuring about $400 for liability.
 
wow, all over the map it seems in terms of time required just to get insurance....
5hr or 10hr in type (which I assume means they will insure you if that's all the time you have...)
all the way up to 100hr required

RyanShort1 said:
Probably $800-1500 a year for the first year depending on how much hull value. I'm paying roughly $2500/yr to give dual only in my plane.
Click to expand...

So you're thinking I'd be at about $800-$1500 per year? I see you're in a Luscombe so perhaps a similar case.......
So 800 to 1500 per year for something like a Champ, Luscombe, 140, or Cub...I'll assume perhaps $30,000 to $45,000 hull value just looking at a few on Barnstormers....
and I'll guess that might be an estimate of where I would be.... 300 hour TT pilot, probably 10 hours time to get current and tailwheel sign off...so maybe 20 hours or so total tailwheel time...private no commercial operations

so just for baseline understanding...how much would insurance probably run a 300 hour TT pilot for a similar value tricycle aircraft?
 
Sounds about right, you can find one for sale and call/email a broker for a quote, than you’ll know and can come back and share with us.
 
Brad W said:
How much conventional gear time does a person need.... generally &/or in type...for insurance to be reasonable?

I have 10.1 total conventional, all dual...and all spread out...never enough at one shot for me to master it and get my endorsement
and it was all a long time ago
...
I don't have a hangar so it would have to live outside, and I'm very rusty and not current (a little over 320 total time)...but ignoring those two things, I'm wondering if insurance would be a show stopper for such a dream.
Click to expand...
I bought my 140A under similar circumstances. I already had my endorsement but enough time had passed that I felt like I was starting over. Insurance required 5 hours of dual or something trivial like that.

Brad W said:
So you're thinking I'd be at about $800-$1500 per year? I see you're in a Luscombe so perhaps a similar case.......
So 800 to 1500 per year for something like a Champ, Luscombe, 140, or Cub...I'll assume perhaps $30,000 to $45,000 hull value just looking at a few on Barnstormers....
Click to expand...
$1500ish for $35k hull
 
Yeah 5% hull is why im going trike on the RV. at the hull values im looking at and expected yearly flying that premium doesn't pencil out for me. My quote on the trike came exactly at half the hull ratio. Thats a lot of 100LL for me.
 
We also need to factor in the age of the pilot to keep comparing apples to apples.
 
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