Insurance question

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

May the force be with you
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First, I am surprised by the gap in different insurers.
I expected them to all be in the same ballpark but the quotes I am getting back are all across the board. lowest so far: $800 annually. Highest: $1700 annually

On one of the quotes, I see this:
"Open Pilot Warranty: Any Private pilot or better who is using the aircraft with the permission of the Named Insured"

Does this mean if I allow another pilot to fly the plane, they are covered?
 
Only if they enhance your current seat belt with a "notebook band", this will augment the policy via the elastic expansion clause.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
First, I am surprised by the gap in different insurers.
I expected them to all be in the same ballpark but the quotes I am getting back are all across the board. lowest so far: $800 annually. Highest: $1700 annually

On one of the quotes, I see this:
"Open Pilot Warranty: Any Private pilot or better who is using the aircraft with the permission of the Named Insured"

Does this mean if I allow another pilot to fly the plane, they are covered?
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I am no insurance agent but as I understand it. NO, it means you are covered if they crash the plane but it doesn't stop the insurance company from going after them (subrogation). So they should still have non-owned to protect themselves.
 
Open pilot just means you are covered. The insurance company may go after the other pilot if they have any $$$.
 
Wow. My Open Pilot limits are 750 hours TT and 25 M&M.
 
You have to actually read the policy and see what it says. Or pay a lawyer to read it and explain it to you. Even then there are some questions as to how things are covered. Sometimes the insurance pays your loss, and sometimes they hire a lawyer to defend you and ???? Sometimes you have to sue your insurance company to get them to pay. And no one really knows, but the answers lie in the wording of the insurance policy.

One thing, regular owners policy doesnt allow you to rent the airplane out to anyone and you will be covered. Even if the renter has renters insurance. YOu have to have a rental commercial policy to get that. Avemco does have CFI owned aircraft coverage for a CFI that wants to teach in his airplane. I don't know if it allows the student to solo or not. Have to read the policy or ask the agent.

All these policies are different.
 
That makes sense.

I was mostly wondering if it would allow for Dad to fly without adding him to the policy.
I can imagine a scenario where he wants to fly on one of his common missions but the Cirrus is in for maintenance.
 
In that case why not have him as a named insured? Is the price that much more?
 
DFH65 said:
In that case why not have him as a named insured? Is the price that much more?
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That is the plan. I just saw this when getting quotes and didn't understand the verbiage. Thought maybe it wouldn't be necessary.
 
Some companies will let you add a few named insured for next to nothing in added cost. Be sure to discuss it with a broker when shopping for insurance.
 
6PC - Are you IFR rated? Not in the sense of "I Fly Red handles" but the weather stuff. Wondering how much that helps on insurance.
 
That's funny! I'm not IR but I understand it cuts it down significantly.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
That is the plan. I just saw this when getting quotes and didn't understand the verbiage. Thought maybe it wouldn't be necessary.
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To keep it simple, the so-called "open pilot warranty" is a warrant (promise) promise from you to the insurance company that no one who doesn't meet the standards listed will fly the airplane.

If you break your promise and an accident occurs, the insurer will not pay a hull damage claim or a liability claim against someone who is insured by the policy.

That's all it is. It does not crate insurance coverage to protect anyone who might be flying the airplane.

Beyond that generalization, who is covered and for what requires reading and understanding the policy itself.
 
Sounds as if you're about to buy that Tiger? - good on ya!
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
That's funny! I'm not IR but I understand it cuts it down significantly.
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Depends on the airplane and the insurer. Our 182 insurance was already so low priced, adding another Instrument rated pilot made almost nil difference. They said we were all high time enough it didn't matter. (Almost all underwriters ding the low timers but not for long. 100 hours in type seems to be the breakpoint.) This year's quote came back so low we almost thought it was a mistake. $200 lower than the previous three years.

Also watch for gotchas like liability limits per seat, medical limits per seat, etc. If you want a specific number for liability coverage that has no limits like that on it, the magic word to use is that you want "smooth" coverage. Maybe that's some of what you're seeing in the different quotes.

Also some underwriters just don't like certain airplanes. I have no idea why.
 
wrbix said:
Sounds as if you're about to buy that Tiger? - good on ya!
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I'm working really really hard to make it happen. I'm a few small details and a little bit of luck away from making it happen on my preferred timeline.
 
denverpilot said:
Depends on the airplane and the insurer. Our 182 insurance was already so low priced, adding another Instrument rated pilot made almost nil difference. They said we were all high time enough it didn't matter. (Almost all underwriters ding the low timers but not for long. 100 hours in type seems to be the breakpoint.)
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My Bonanza insurance was the same way. It was already so low priced I don't think I got any discount at all for earning an instrument rating. It was the same for all the other ratings I've earned since too, no real premium reduction.

Time in type helps though, and once I reached the threshold the underwriters were looking for the premium went down a bit. I wasn't losing any sleep over it though, my insurance premiums on my old Bonanza are relatively cheap.

denverpilot said:
Also some underwriters just don't like certain airplanes. I have no idea why.
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Indeed. I've got a friend who has a Mooney and the insurance premium on that with a guy who has plenty of Mooney time and 10,000 hours TT is still double what my Bonanza is, for similar hull values. He also has a fabric plane on the policy, which I blamed for the high premium but it turns out that the fabric plane only added something like $300 to the overall cost. That is completely opposite of what I was seeing when I was shopping for fabric covered airplanes vs. comparable metal planes.
 
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