Is the CFI covered on their own insurance?

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JasonM

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I'm getting close to a deal on a "new to me" airplane. I was wondering.. Would I need to carry insurance coverage for a CFI to train me in it? Are CFI's required to carry their own insurance for this kind of stuff?
 
The FAA does not require CFIs to carry insurance (and rightfully so!). Just talk to your insurance people, shouldn't be a big deal to have your CFI added on presuming he's not already covered under a flight training blanket or something on your policy.
 
JasonM said:
I'm getting close to a deal on a "new to me" airplane. I was wondering.. Would I need to carry insurance coverage for a CFI to train me in it? Are CFI's required to carry their own insurance for this kind of stuff?
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No, there's no requirement. Many of us do, but that's an individual choice. I often ask to be added as a named insured if I am going to be doing a lot of instruction with a student in his airplane, even though I carry my own. There usually is no additional cost to my clients for me to be named....it even saved one of my students some money on his insurance.
 
My insurance already has a clause covering a CFI if they have so many hours in the same make/model aircraft.
 
Yep, a lot of times if you name a CFI on your policy you will get a discount. More than likely he will have to have time in type (10 hours or more). He is not required to have insurance, if you go through a flight school, that schools insurance will cover the CFI. Your aircraft insurance will cover the aircraft.
 
Thanks. I was thinking about paying a ferry pilot I don't know who is a CFI to fly back with me and train me on all the new stuff, then getting my normal CFI to do some more training when I get it home. I would guess a Ferry pilot would carry that kind of insurance correct?
 
JasonM said:
Thanks. I was thinking about paying a ferry pilot I don't know who is a CFI to fly back with me and train me on all the new stuff, then getting my normal CFI to do some more training when I get it home. I would guess a Ferry pilot would carry that kind of insurance correct?
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Maybe, maybe not. I'd still add him onto YOUR insurance though, as others and I have said, it's doubtfull it'll cost you anything and you will had the peace if mind knowing it's covered, even if he has insurance if he's underinsured or with a crap company it can be almost as bad as no coverage at all.

Just add the guy to your policy.:dunno:
 
Generally speaking, your insurance remains in force for you when you are receiving training from a CFI meeting the open instructor requirement in your policy. OTOH, generally speaking, the insurance does not cover the instructor in that situation. That means if anything bad happens while you are receiving training from that instructor, your insurer will cover any damage to your plane, and pay any third party who is injured or whose property is damaged if you are found liable for that damage/injury. What it will not do in that situation is cover the instructor's liability to third parties, and your insurer may subrogate against that instructor for what it paid out to you. It is because of that most of us instructing independently carry our own insurance to cover our liability to third parties and anything we have to pay you or your insurer. However, that is not your problem, just ours.

It is possible to add your instructor to your policy as an "additional insured", in which case s/he is fully covered by your insurer to the limits of your policy, but there are not many benefits accruing to you if you do that, and it may cost you extra.
 
I added my instructor because he didn't meet the open pilot clause. No surprise, he had no mooney time. Fortunately, it did not raise my rate at all.
 
Ron Levy said:
Generally speaking, your insurance remains in force for you when you are receiving training from a CFI meeting the open instructor requirement in your policy. OTOH, generally speaking, the insurance does not cover the instructor in that situation. That means if anything bad happens while you are receiving training from that instructor, your insurer will cover any damage to your plane, and pay any third party who is injured or whose property is damaged if you are found liable for that damage/injury. What it will not do in that situation is cover the instructor's liability to third parties, and your insurer may subrogate against that instructor for what it paid out to you. It is because of that most of us instructing independently carry our own insurance to cover our liability to third parties and anything we have to pay you or your insurer. However, that is not your problem, just ours.

It is possible to add your instructor to your policy as an "additional insured", in which case s/he is fully covered by your insurer to the limits of your policy, but there are not many benefits accruing to you if you do that, and it may cost you extra.
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+1

I also carry my own insurance. Some CFI's do, some don't. I'm with Ron that it's a wise thing to do.

Mike
 
Yep, read your policy. My insurance covers my interest in the aircraft and my liability when flying with an instructor or mechanic (or them flying the aircraft alone). What is not protected is their liability.
 
Ron Levy said:
It is possible to add your instructor to your policy as an "additional insured", in which case s/he is fully covered by your insurer to the limits of your policy, but there are not many benefits accruing to you if you do that, and it may cost you extra.
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Watch out for this one.

If your CFI is added to the policy as a "named insured," it covers him or her for flying the airplane, subject to all limitations and exclusions of the policy.

One of the common ones is the commercial activity exclusion which in many policies included flight training for hire. Here's the language from AVEMCO:

==============================
“Insured person” means:
a. you;
b. a person or organization using, or responsible for the use of, your insured aircraft with your permission. However, persons or organizations who are in an aviation business are not insured persons when the accident arises out of, or occurs during, the conduct of such aviation business (my emphasis)
==============================

"Aviation business" is defined by the policy to include "providing pilot, crew, or flight instruction services."

The policy doesn't cover the instructor who is providing flight instruction and more than it would cover the owner who used his or her airplane for training. (That does not, btw, mean the insurance doesn't cover you, the trainee)

Point is that, unlike auto insurance which is heavily regulated by the states in terms of coverages and policy language, aviation insurance is not uniform from company to company. You won't know what is covered without reviewing it carefully, perhaps with someone who understands what it actually says.

That doesn't include the insurer's representatives. I once has a client who received a subrogation claim when he flew another aircraft. He owned an aircraft and when he called the insurer, he was given three different answers to his question about whether he was covered. All of them were wrong.
 
flyingron said:
Yep, read your policy. My insurance covers my interest in the aircraft and my liability when flying with an instructor or mechanic (or them flying the aircraft alone). What is not protected is their liability.
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Yep. That's pretty much the way most of them read. There are exceptions, of course.
 
With the exception if your CFI's liability- Your plane might be covered - the hull coverage. Usually in most airplanes cfi is covered however there are a few airplanes that the insurance might require in addition to being a CFI that they have 10 hrs in type. Usually this is for aircraft with a bugabooo or two. Non typical flight characteristics....

A typical Cherokee trainer or 150/152/172/182 and such probably have no hour minimums other than the standard 250 hrs for commercial that a CFI must have to get his CFI.

i think my Comanche insurance required CFI have 10 hrs in type before my hull was covered with him flying it.

Twins and many experimental s might have minimum hour requirements as well.
 
Tony_Scarpelli said:
With the exception if your CFI's liability- Your plane might be covered - the hull coverage. Usually in most airplanes cfi is covered
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I have never seen a policy which automatically provides coverage for a CFI giving instruction to the policy holder. Coverage for the policy holder while receiving training from that instructor, yes, that's normal, but absent some extra rider, the instructor giving that training to the policy holder is always on his/her own.

Of course, that is a concern only for the CFI, not the aircraft owner/trainee.
 
My local instructor who does my BFR/IPCs wanted to fly my plane. My plane requires 25 hours retract for the open pilot clause. He used to fly U-2s. I asked him if the wheels fall off the plane, does it qualify for retract.
 
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