Ewfflyer

My understanding is that renters insurance basically helps you cover the deductible of the flight schools policy, not to cover the complete cost of the aircraft itself. So it's not really this 'huge' safety net some make it out to be.

dckozak

I don't mind buying insurance, if I feel I am covering a risk and I'm paying an amount commensurate to the risk the underwriter is taking. As an ATP professional with thousands of hours and working in the profession (flying regularly), I should not have to pay the same fee to cover a risk that (IMHO) is many magnitudes less than, say a PPL VFR pilot who rents and flies infrequently. Comments regarding coverage and what is at personal risk is a point well made. We all have risks associated with transportation and lawsuits (from alleged neglect) but its overwhelming from driving, not flying.
It probably wont change a thing in my case, if I want to rent a local Piper or Cessna, I will probably pony up $250 or so to "cover" the 10 hours or so I intend to rent. Not withstanding the fact I can afford it, I think its wrong and probably hurts the industry more by giving people yet another reason to not pursue aviation as a hobby.

SkylineAviation

I'm no expert on insurance matters, but the fact that you are required to pay insurance sounds unusual. Because the owner/flight school has those planes as rentals their insurance premiums are higher than if it was for personal use. The bottom line is the insurance company is getting paid double and/or the flight school is using you to lower their premiums while you pay their insurance plus you pay them for the rental. Personally I would be flying elsewhere.

Duckdude

At my flight school, we have a $1,000 deductable that the renter is required to cover. The renter is also responsible for loss of use of the aircraft while it is being repaired. Although we have a $1,000,000 liability policy for the school, the renter only has $100,000 of liability coverage, which is not much for someone that has a lot of assets. Because of this, we suggest renters supplement the insurance we provide with renters insurance. Renters insurance is, in my opinion, cheap.

In a previous post, someone mentioned that the school's insurance company will subrogate and sue the renter after paying a claim. Although this may be the case at some schools, we have a waiver of subrogation is our policy. In other words, if you wreck one of my planes, our insurance won't sue you to get their money back after they pay my claim. I have never even been offered a policy that did not have this waiver in it.

I had a customer get talked into a $60,000 renters policy by AOPA at great expense because that was probably what our most expensive plane is worth. In his case, the plane was basically double insured. Since he is rich, he needed to focus on the liability insurance, not the hull insurance since we already provide that coverage. Covering the $1,000 deductale would be pocket change for him, but a multi million dollar lawsuit is what he needs protecton against.

Some day I would like to rent a Piper Cub at our school. If so, we may only insure it for liability and make the renter have their own policy to cover damage to the plane. Tailwheels are expensive to insure and easy to wreck.

By the way, we just renewed our policy this week. We have a 152, 2 172's, and a 172RG, all 1980's vintage. The policy for those 4 planes, along with general business insurance, was right at $18,000 for 1 year.

jonnyjetprop

Call the companies direct and don't use the web. They'll give you discounts based on experience and recurrent training.

As an airline pilot myself, I wouldn't rent with out it.