Yes a real shame that the Brussels bureaucrats brought out this rule and our government and our CAA representatives didnt do anything about it. Well I think they did a bit as the original draft meant every aircraft had to have 60 million Euros insurance!!!
Something really needs to be done for these warbirds, otherwise there are going to be a lot more going the way of Sally B. Very few are funded by giving rides- and I dont mind buying the £300 T shirt either!! This seems to be more prevalent in the USA.
But A + C you are wrong, this is not a good idea. Because the rates are far too high.
I dont remember hearding anything about light aircraft crashing and causing lots of damage that wasnt paid for because they didnt have insurance, or enough insurance. Most people I know already had £500,000 liability insurance which was obviously enough. Maybe not enough for those parasites of society, the ambulance chasing lawyers to bother about- perhaps the new rates will get them intrested!
The new Law has seen the required insurance go up to 1.5SDRs for an aircraft between 500-1000kg which probably covers a lot of the GA fleet. This works out at about £1.2 million, but because the insurance companies refuse to work to these figures they make you take £1.5 million insurance. So now we are being insured for three times the amount most people had before, when that was obviously adequate. The amount of money paid to insurance companies was obviously adequate last year, but now more people are paying because it is compulsory, so the rates should be less to gain the same amount, but no they have gone up considerably.
So more money to the insurance companies and their brokers. Less money to go flying, so probably more crashes as people are less current because they have less money to spend on flying.
For me it might "only" be another £200 per year, ontop of an already extreemly expensive insurance, but for the warbird community it is much more. Many like Sally B operate on a shoe-string dependant mostly on vetrans and enthusiasts joining their club and donations.
Why cant the Government grant an exemption for historic aircraft, for example that theyonly pay the insurance based on 2,000kg whatever their weight.
Looking forward to Duxford this weekend, hopefully some operators have faired better and got insurance!