From December 06 Devon Strut newsletter:
Liability insurance has reared its ugly head during this month of November. One of our farm strip flying clubs has to make the difficult decision whether to close the airfield to all visiting aircraft and cancel their 2007 fly-in. Why? Because, like at many of our local strips, a visit for a cup of tea and a natter have all been at the pilots own risk. Now, if some clever insurance company spots an opening for shifting the blame on to the landowner, hey-ho, where’s your policy Mr Farmer!! A quick call to PFA HQ elicited “Oh, I am surprised that strip owners have not got liability insurance, foolish beings!” So there lies a story. When I called around to our entire 14 fly-in venues this year I met with very mixed responses. Some strip owners are operating on restricted incomes and the added burden of several hundred pounds going to the very slight opening that some clever clogs may find will not warrant the added expense. Some strip owners do not have that many visitors but enjoy holding a fly-in once a year. Other owners do not welcome any visitors except for those at their once a year social chin-wag and fly-in. Now we are tasked with finding a satisfactory solution, otherwise flying to friends’ strips on a sunny afternoon will be terminated!
I have contacted the PFA and asked for Primary Liability cover for fly-ins. Reply: Too expensive! Great! Thanks for your help. I try another tack; Yes, Hall and Clarke will provide cover @ £100 for each event. That, times fourteen is cost prohibitive, so we provide some data with the hope we can claw the cost down. I have also contacted some other companies to ask for help. The committee of Grand Elders is working on the problem and Jim Gale is also working with the Flying Farmers Association to see what ideas they have. Pete White is also in touch with the Vintage Aircraft Club so we will attempt to make this a national campaign and rope in all the help possible.