Right before Christmas isn't a good time to talk about
this subject, but I'm afraid that if I wait, I'll have a case of CRS.
After several comments observed on the LML, I decided to talk to my insurance
broker and see what AIG would be requiring at renewal. Seems that most of
the comments were on target, AIG wants a complete inspection of the aircraft by
either Joe Bartels or Tim Ong. We are all aware that neither of these
gentlemen are familiar with the many variations of the builders,
especially electrical and avionics. I can see the process causing more
problems than they fix with chasing down broken wires and the like.
I asked my broker to see what AIG was
going to require at my April renewal and received the following in response:
…, AIG is
requiring that all of the Lancairs they now write have a new inspection.
Under XXX’s policy, and as your’s probably would be on renewal in
April, AIG states that an aircraft inspection by Joe Bartels or
Tim Ong must be completed and the certificate received by AIG
before renewal next year. In XXX’s case he would have had to have
this done by November 15, 2009. They have paid out $10,000,000 in claims
and have only collected $3,000,000 in premium. After this inspection is
completed it will then need to be reinspected every 3 – 5 years. It
sounds as to all of their claims are coming from pilot error. However, if they
are going to continue writing the business they feel they need to put on this
additional requirement. A pilot’s hours really has nothing to do
with this particular requirement at this particular time. A pilot
needs to have the initial training, 6 month recurrent training, and then annual
thereafter.
My broker was asked to talk to Global as several
people said they got insurance through them. The following was the answer
received:
( I spoke with Global’s
manager this morning.
They are not writing any policies
for any Lancair IV model, except for some that they have had on the books for years
He said the loss experience has been unbelievable and he made the decision back
in 2003 not to write any more of them. Apparently AIG
has had all the losses.
He is very surprised that they are
willing to continue to write them. He anticipates that the market will
completely dry up and sometime in the future no one will write them at all.
I spoke with AIG again
. They provide the insurance for the manufacturer so it would put them in
a difficult position if they were to decline to provide insurance for the
individual owners.
After reviewing the NTSB report, it
appears as though the majority of the accidents are pilot error. The
aircraft inspection makes no sense to me, but I guess they had to put on some
requirement and that was it.)
This seems to imply that we are going to have another
bottleneck that will be difficult to break. To indicate that only two
people are able to certify the flight worthiness of our aircraft puts both the
owners and the company in dire straights. One, who in their right minds
would buy a Lancair kit with this hanging over their head? Two, the
requirement for reinspection at whatever interval is onerous and expensive.
Three, what is the value of the completed and flying fleet? And Four, the
requirement for training seems appropriate to address the issues that the
accident data reflects. How many of those payouts came from pilots they
insured without the HPAT training? Is the company at fault for issuing
coverage without assuring the training? What exactly are they trying to
fix with this very time consuming and expensive requirement?
Looks like a real problem is on the very near horizon.
Thoughts and comments appreciated.
Pat Brunner
LNC4 /P
780 Hours