dogpilot wrote:Aside from age, which has no particular advantage except access to Medicare, insurance rates are going up for bunches of other reasons. Some of the biggest reasons are just good old stupidity. Fools make mistakes, some more humorous than others, and mistakes cost insurers. There have been some high profile, poor judgement caused, mistakes lately. That particular loss will most likely cost the insurers more than all the taildragger losses combined.

Jet sales where huge this year. There was a feeding frenzy of wonks buying them for tax purposes. I have a good friend who supplies crews on contract for just that type. He has enormous issues finding qualified crews that do not suffer from poor judgment. So these wonks will go out and hire them themselves, since he cannot supply them. Expect an uptick in high end Citations and the like, going off runways, running into each other taxiing, finding heretofore unnoticed terrain and so on.

Unfortunately, yes, we all need to hang up the spurs someday. At Burning Man, we had an older gent, in excess of 75, loose the bubble in the pattern in a 340. Oversped the flaps and damaged them rather badly. He then proceeded to land on the taxiway, fail to stop on it , run though the ramp, scattering people right & left, ending in the rough. Being the Air Safety guy, I went over with my bud Dan to see exactly what happened. We first encounter his daughter, who implored us to keep him on the ground. We talk with the somewhat confused gent for a bit and yes, he should really take up another pastime. Where my bud Dan turns to me and says; "Don't let me be that guy!" So hopefully you will realize you are "that guy," before the insurance guys nudge you out of the game.

akaviator wrote:…. I watched a beautiful RV-8 take off out of KSZP, snap an upwind then downwind leg and exit the AO. Hour later he returns with a perfect wheel landing and taxi to the fuel pumps. He climbed out and was definitely in the age group mentioned above. Stud pilot for sure.....

hotrod180 wrote:

akaviator wrote:…. I watched a beautiful RV-8 take off out of KSZP, snap an upwind then downwind leg and exit the AO. Hour later he returns with a perfect wheel landing and taxi to the fuel pumps. He climbed out and was definitely in the age group mentioned above. Stud pilot for sure.....

Reminds me of an older dude who flies an RV8 out of the next airport over from mine.
Nice guy, and he handles the airplane beautifully....
unfortunately he routinely cuts people off in the pattern, pulls out for takeoff right in front of landing traffic, etc etc.
Dunno if he isn't aware or just doesn't care...either way, he's a real hazard.

TommyN wrote:“ Just got my insurance renewal quote back and my premium stayed exactly the same as last year. I'm pleased with that!”

And might we ask that you state your age please?

Thanks,

Tommy

Flying Dave wrote:Have any of you seen age limitations in the open pilot clause of your policy? Most I’ve seen have hour and rating limitations but I haven’t noticed any age limits. Yet....

Makes me wonder if two guys are partners in an airplane and one is older than the other if it would be beneficial to put it in the youngsters name. Hypothetically speaking of course.