Insurance conditions
 

What is the general situation regarding insurance excess when flying a club aircraft as a club member. (I'm still researching which club to join for PPL training)

I know the answer is going to be dependent on the club, however what is generally the norm. I ask because I certainly want to fly in spain (post PPL) at some point and have checked out the terms and conditions of Fly In Spain. They state that a PIC is responsibile for the insurance excess of 2500 Euros and a charge of 2hrs per day for each day that the aircraft is U/S. That could mount up to some serious money if the aircraft is seriously damaged. Do any UK clubs operate a similar policy

My club is £750 excess OR pay an additional £5 per hire (not hour) to waive the excess.

When flying dual for 42day checks etc, then there is no liability.

Hope this helps.

Late Reply
 

Hi VulcanPilot

Sorry I have just seen your reply. I guess this might be a standard club policy then? I will have to check out my club policy when they finally let me off on my own.

Thanks
JP1

Never come across the charge for loss of income in any of the agreements with UK clubs/schools.

Most have an excess of somewhere between £500 and £1000.

To charge 2 hours per out of action day on top of a €2500 excess seems, erum, excessive.

That would be a liability that I would be very wary off to take on.

If for example the aeroplane would be out of action for a month, and that is not a very long time even for something not all that big you could be looking at a substantial amount. Say hire rate is €100 per hour that would leave you €6000 + €2500 = €8500 out of pocket.

Yikes.

Worth mentioning that a student or renter is not insured himself. The insurance is for the benefit of the operator (the school).

If a student wrecks a plane, the insurance company is able to go after him, to recover every penny (plus costs) which they paid out to the school.

It's undoubtedly very rare for this to happen, but the avenue is open and insurers do recover their losses when the amount is big enough. I personally know of one case where the pilot of a light aircraft (which damaged a fairly pricey helicopter, during an accident on takeoff) was pursued all the way up the legal system, and eventually (after about 10 years) settled for around £250,000.

The only way to avoid this is for his name to be on the policy, as a joint insured party.

That's enough to put anyone off hiring for life IO540! :eek:

Funny how the schools never mention this little risk in their adverts or even mention it to their solo students or hirers!

SS

You might also consider arranging a Non-Ownership Liability policy to cover you flying other people's aircraft (if this is a regular occurrance and the cost can be justified)

You never know if you are covered by their policy, or if they even have one, or if their claim might not be covered for some reason.

Di :O