What is the thoughts about the insurance that the AOPA ALLWAYS sends me,renters,leagal,ect?
Just a big pile of paper every month if you ask me,and having to rent a house as I do, if there is an incedent,I dont have anything to take anyway.

wilm,

Renter's insurance is a good idea if you rent aircraft a bit. Remember, the owner's insurance is to insure HIM, not you. His insurance company COULD (though it doesn't happen much) subrogate against you if you did something dumb (I know--you'll never do anything dumb, but I have). Also, there is typically a deductable that the owner is responsible for, and they can come after you for that.

As to not having any assets--do you have a job? If so, a court can do bad things to your paycheck. Then you may not be able to pay that rent....

Renters insurance it seems to me, is a good idea in any case, IF you rent much.

MTV

Aside from the question about whether it is wise to have insurance, sometimes AOPA insurance is the way to go, sometimes not. Many people have found better deals with other companies. Don't assume that just because you are a AOPA member that their insurance quote will be the best.

Remember they may be pushing their insurance as a member benefit, but in reality they are selling it because the organization receives the benefit i.e. cash by marketing it to their members. Not necessarily a bad thing, after all, since AOPA is an advocacy group, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pay higher insurance rates just to support AOPA.

I'm rather sour on their member products anyway. None of their insurance carriers (as of earlier this year) will insure an Alaska aircraft. Period.

If you wreck a rental aircraft, the FBO WILL COME AFTER YOU for the deductible, which can be upwards of $10,000. The insurance carrier probably won't subrogate unless there is gross negligence. Renters insurance is very inexpensive. So the only question is, is it worth self insuring, or paying a small amount per annum to avoid having to worry about it? That is always the eternal question about insurance.

Also remember legal liability, which is the other large part of insurance. Prang an airplane on a botched go-around, and you will likely only be out the FBO's deductible. But what if instead of bouncing off a tree you landed on a minivan full of kids going to school, or the newly-restored Beech Staggerwing taxiing for the runway? Or what about the passenger/buddy who says that he won't sue you in case of an accident, but is suddenly facing $50K in medical bills...who is going to pay for your lawyer?

Having 20% of your wages garnished from your paycheck for the rest of your working life would have paid for a lot of insurance. Something to think about. Don't get me wrong I'm not an insurance salesman or anything, but aviation is a litigious field, and IMHO not the place to scrimp on insurance.

I agree with once&futr_alaskaflyer on AOPA. I am a member but doubt I will use their insurance again. Guess its my own fault for not ready the policy fully but there is lots of "fine print".
Recently called them to cancel my insurance due to breaking my leg and not being able to fly for awhile and they charged me nearly $100 to cancel my policy. I thought that was a little rediculus. It was either that or get a nasty gram for the final payment on the policy. Basically I had to pay for the whole years coverage and only was covered for a few months.
I will definitely try and use someone else next year.

I had occasion a few years back to cancel an airplane policy due to an unexpected engine overhaul, during which the airplane was just gonna be sitting. I expected to get a pro-rated refund, what I got was a pro-rated minus penalty sorta deal. I guess you could say it was under-rated. Anyway, it wasn't thru AOPA. I thought it was bullshit, but apparently it's somewhat of an industry standard to do that. Like you, I didn't read the fine print. But it still pencilled out better to take my refund minus penalty than to just let the coverage ride.

Eric

The thought of insurance in general really pisses me off, but it sounds like I should check out some ins. for the airplane renting that I do.
Thanx for the info,c

Hey Zane,

There's an idea for you. Start a Back Country Pilots insurance business. No insurance coverage (or huge deductable) if you land on hard surface. Write off that airplane and all your flying! We get cheap (cheaper) insurance and you get, well.... headaches. But we get cheap insurance, or did I already mention that.

You know, I got my thick envelope of Membership Documents or whatever just yesterday, and my thought was similar. I was surprised at all the insurance offers. They really made flying sound safer than driving.

Raising a dead thread for a question...

I'm getting my TW endorsement in a Taylorcraft. After I'm done, I can rent the plane if I get renter's insurance.

So I did a quote and it didn't ask me type of plane or specific types of hours other than total and number in past 12 months.

So it seemed affordable for this.

What's weird, if with the same hours I go to buy the plane, now it asks how many TW hours I have, number in type, and so on, and then the price is way high.

Why the difference? Seems that I could give my buddy the cash to buy the plane and put it in his name. Then I just rent it from him and have cheaper insurance.

I've got to be missing something, what is it?

The owner has the plane insured already. Your renters insurance is gravy insurance on a plane that is already insured.

If you have a friend buy the plane and rent it to you, he will want to insure the plane and you also buy renters insurance on top of that. In my little world that is being overinsured.

This is my free opinion and probably worth what you are paying for it.

Bill

I used to hear this saying all the time:

The three most useless things in aviation: The sky above you, the runway behind you, and renters' insurance.

It didn't sink in too much at the time but my mentor had told me that Rental Insurance had so many exclusions this it was deemed useless when you needed it.

My free advice is read all the fine print twice. Also worth what you paid.

I get all that, but what says the owner has to be insured? I know this guy is insured and I'll get the renter's policy too. But there's got to be something that says the owner has to be insured as well.

Check your present insurance...if you own an aircraft. I'm insured through AVEMCO and when I inquired about renters insurance they told me that I was insured on any aircraft I flew with the same coverage that I had on my policy for the plane I own...hull, liability, medical etc. provided that I was checked out in make & model.
I have'nt rented in years but I do fly other aircraft.
When I had the C-170 the best deal came from AIG as I belonged to the C-170 Association. When I got the 7GCBC Avemco was better than AIG or AOPA with fewer restrictions. Avemco will give you a better deal if you use their flight safety program or fly often with your instructor.
I get bids every year just to check the competition but I think once they get your name into the mill, there are only so many insurance underwriters and they know you are looking.
HC

I got my answer. It's because renter's only cover's when you are operating the non-owned aircraft and not 365 days 24/7 like owner's does. There's the difference in the price and such.