Have you ever hired a car from Budget or Avis, you always pay the excess should you have an accident.
Not the same. Perhaps if you walk in off the street, licence in hand, and hire an aircraft for an hour. But if you are undertaking a ‘course’ at a flying school then there is no justification for this.
As most flying schools lease their aircraft, they’re not actually paying any insurance on the aircraft anyway, the owner is. If this is the case, the flying school should ‘self insure’ the excess. If they own their own aircraft, then they should do the same and ‘self insure’ any excess. After all, this is an industry with a certain amount of risk associated with it, as a business you can’t distance yourself from that risk and pass any loss onto the student.
I have flown with six flying schools and not once have I had to sign an agreement like this, tell’em to get bent!