The italicized note below from my agent
says it is for a IV. I did not query as to other models.
Pat
-----Original Message-----
From: Lancair Mailing List
[mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of vonjet@gmail.com
Sent: Saturday, December 20, 2008
8:18 AM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Re: Insurance
Is
this for ALL lancairs? Or just the IV's??
Are the 320/360's included in this b.s. ?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
From:
"n98pb"
Date: Sat, 20
Dec 2008 08:54:38 -0500
To: <lml@lancaironline.net>
Subject: [LML] Insurance
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