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