Renter's insurance

Chewie von Nubbins

Chewie von Nubbins

New Member
About to taxi out to the runway this morning and I saw a student clip the wing of a 172 with another 172. The innocent 172 just sitting there all pretty was not badly damaged, looked like the plastic outer wing-tip was mashed up a bit, but the 172 the student was in took a nice big wrinkle in the wing.

After getting back, I saw the mechanic working on it and asked him who pays....that is when it hit me that I might need some insurance while going through all of this training. The mechanic said the damage was at a minimum on $10k on the offending 172, and a few more thousand for the innocent 172 bystander....all paid by the student. He even said that if you hit a bird and the plane took some damage, the student is responsible for all damage. Got me thinking even more, as I almost took out a chicken hawk the other day.

Just wondering about thoughts on this. I see that there are a few agencies out there that offer insurance, and here is what I am looking at:

AOPA Insurance

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Each Occurrence[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Per Passenger [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]AOPA Member Discount Premium *
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]250,000[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 25,000[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] 81[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Limit of Liability [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]AOPA Member Discount Premium *[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]30,000[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]333

Good idea to get the insurance or not?
[/FONT]
 
Definately a great idea to get the insurance. When it comes time for you to do multi training though, you may want to look into a short term multi engine insurance.
 
YES!

GET. RENTER'S. INSURANCE. PERIOD.

:D

I have mine through Avemco... when that one is up I'll get mine through the AOPA. You are solely responsible for any damage incurred on rented aircraft (usually). The only time where you might be covered is through a flying club membership - often times you just pay a $500 or $1000 deductible. But if you rent at a local FBO, you're pretty much guaranteed to foot the bill for any incurred damage.
 
2nd to Jace.

If you have an accident and injure someone w/o LIABILITY insurance you might be paying the rest of your life.

As to the "hull" insurance, if you damage the plane, the FBO's insurer will pay the FBO off and then use their right of subrogation to sue you. If you can afford to stroke a check for the plane, you can skip it.

If you can't, the best bet is to get a "hull" limit equal to the full value of the plane.

Alternatively, ask the FBO what their hull deductible is. At least get that much hull coverage (usually $2500 to $5000 on a plane). That would cover you in the case of a minor accident.
 
My flying club has a $1000 deductible, I'm thinking about getting AOPA to cover that just in case something does happen.
 
JHines said:
2nd to Jace.

As to the "hull" insurance, if you damage the plane, the FBO's insurer will pay the FBO off and then use their right of subrogation to sue you. If you can afford to stroke a check for the plane, you can skip it.

If you can't, the best bet is to get a "hull" limit equal to the full value of the plane.

Alternatively, ask the FBO what their hull deductible is. At least get that much hull coverage (usually $2500 to $5000 on a plane). That would cover you in the case of a minor accident.
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Are you sure about this? Can someone verify this? I was led to believe that this wasn't the case. Also, the type - "hull" - of insurance is not what the aviation insurance companies are listing for sell. I guess I am confused a bit by this post.
 
surreal1221 said:
Hull = your liability coverage.
Click to expand...

Actually, the hull policy only coverage for any damage you might do to the plane itself. From the AOPA site:

Hull insurance covers physical damage to the aircraft itself. It is similar to a combination of collision and comprehensive coverage that might be written on an automobile.
Click to expand...

It would not cover your liability for any damage you did to anyone or anything else.... you'd need add'l coverage for that.
 
Well, I just spent another $500 on this crazy dream of mine for this insurance:

LIABILITY LIMITS
Bodily Injury $50,000 each person Property Damage $500,000 property damage Occurrence $500,000 each accident Aircraft Damage Liability $35,000 each non-owned aircraft
This typical, enough? Or, too much?
 
It's typical - and enough.

I suppose I should have been more specific when referring to liability coverage. . .the hull coverage is the Aircraft Damage Liability coverage - which should be for an amount that is greater than the market value of the aircraft you rent.
 
Chewie von Nubbins said:
Well, I just spent another $500 on this crazy dream of mine for this insurance:

LIABILITY LIMITS
Bodily Injury $50,000 each person Property Damage $500,000 property damage Occurrence $500,000 each accident Aircraft Damage Liability $35,000 each non-owned aircraft
This typical, enough? Or, too much?
Click to expand...

$500 now, or 10k plus later? Its an easy choice man. Accidents happen, even to good pilots. Even though I didn't see it happen today, my damn Indians scare the crap out of me. I was getting one ready to solo today, and for every two good patterns and approaches he flew, he would screw one up REALLY bad. For example, 50* bank on base to final, drifting WAY off to the side of the runway, with only a 3-4 knot x-wind component.

I am going to just cover up the whole instrument panel and force him to look outside, just like the guy on here's avatar.
 
Chewie von Nubbins said:
Well, I just spent another $500 on this crazy dream of mine for this insurance:

LIABILITY LIMITS
Bodily Injury $50,000 each person Property Damage $500,000 property damage Occurrence $500,000 each accident Aircraft Damage Liability $35,000 each non-owned aircraft
This typical, enough? Or, too much?
Click to expand...

If you have no assets to protect, that ought to be sufficient. It'll cover 99% of accidents. In the quite unlikely event that you really do some damage to someone and blow through the $50k/person limit, you can file for bankruptcy.
 
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