Lake Insurance

[Severso]

What is a good rule of thumb for how much hull insurance should cost for a new
seaplane pilot who buys a mid - 60's LA-4? 4% or more of hull value?
Thanks!

--Marshall S.

[Travis Marlatte]

More like 10%.

I bought a '79 Lake last summer with only the training hours for seaplane
time. The first year premium was a little less than 10% of the hull value. I
went through AirSure and got a discount by being a LakeFlyers club member. I
expect it to go down this year because of additional hours in type.

There are only six insurance companies that insure float planes. There are
only three that insure Lakes in particular. The SPA has good information on
seaplane insurance.

Email me and I'll be happy to discuss my buying and flying experience in a
Lake.
-------------------------------
Travis


"Severso" > wrote in message
...
> What is a good rule of thumb for how much hull insurance should cost for a
new
> seaplane pilot who buys a mid - 60's LA-4? 4% or more of hull value?
> Thanks!
>
> --Marshall S.

[Richard Kaplan]

"Travis Marlatte" > wrote in message
hlink.net...

> More like 10%.

At that price it seems more like gambling than buying insurance.

Especially when you consider that the insurance company retains any salvage
value, which could easily be 50% of the value of the airplane in a typical
accident -- remember the insurance company decides if the airplane is
totalled, not you.

Suppose you pay them 10% hull value in premium and you have an accident in
which you are paid 100% of the value of the airplane; you are out 10% of
your investment cost.

The insurance company in return received 10% hull value from you, paid you
100%, and sells it for 50% salvage value -- they are out 40% of the cost.

So if you have no accident, the insurance company makes 10% and if you do
have an accident they lose 40%. As long as no more than 1/4 of their
insureds have an accident, they win.

Come to think of it, this seems like much better odds than gambling for the
insurance company.

Which side of the bet would you prefer to be on?

I analyzed a similar situation with my P210 which I use for dual
instruction --> I went with liability insurance and not-in-motion hull
insurance only and I self-insure for the hull value. The above numbers did
not make sense for me if I were to go with full hull insurance.


--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

[Doug]

Insure for the full hull value but get the highest deductible you can
afford.
If you have a small accident (less than 10k) they just up your rates
for 5 years to get it back.

(Severso) wrote in message >...
> What is a good rule of thumb for how much hull insurance should cost for a new
> seaplane pilot who buys a mid - 60's LA-4? 4% or more of hull value?
> Thanks!
>
> --Marshall S.

[G.R. Patterson III]

Doug wrote:
>
> If you have a small accident (less than 10k) they just up your rates
> for 5 years to get it back.

Someone crunched my left elevator a few years ago. About $1,200 in damages. My
insurance rates have steadily gone down since then.

George Patterson
Battle, n; A method of untying with the teeth a political knot that would
not yield to the tongue.

[Richard Kaplan]

"Doug" > wrote in message
om...

> Insure for the full hull value but get the highest deductible you can
> afford.

Have you found an insurer willing to do this?

I found he highest deductible I could get was $5,000 and the difference in
premium between $500 and $5,000 deductibles was negligible.

What I really wanted was a true high-deductible catastrophic policy, i.e. a
$25,000 or $50,000 deductible -- I could never find an insurer willing to
underwrite this. Has anyone else been successful at that?

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

[Michael]

"Richard Kaplan" > wrote
> So if you have no accident, the insurance company makes 10% and if you do
> have an accident they lose 40%. As long as no more than 1/4 of their
> insureds have an accident, they win.

I've looked into seaplane training at the local operation that offers
a rating (but no solo) and have a pretty good idea as to what they
teach. I also talked to some seaplane owners, and have some idea of
what is actually required to operate a seaplane safely while getting
some utility out of it. Based on this, I expect that 1-in-4 estimate
is not too terribly far off.

I suspect that after a few hundred hours of accident-free operation,
the rate gets a lot lower.

I know a pilot who very recently bought a Twin Comanche, low time with
neither a multi rating nor an instrument rating. His named instructor
had minimal experience in make and model. The OVERALL premium was
over 3 times higher than what I pay on the same airplane and the hull
coverage was over 6% of the hull value. I think they made their first
claim about 20 hours after the purchase; it wasn't a total loss but
the insurance company won't be making any money on them.

The rates are what they are for a reason.

Michael

[Howard]

Small losses, unless indicative of poor piloting skills or bad aircraft
management, will usually not influence your rates much.

Overall, the marketplace does more to effect your rates than your own loss
history. If a company is hungry to write a bunch of your type of aircraft,
they will probably start offering good rates even if you've had a loss.


"Doug" > wrote in message
om...
> Insure for the full hull value but get the highest deductible you can
> afford.
> If you have a small accident (less than 10k) they just up your rates
> for 5 years to get it back.
>
> (Severso) wrote in message
>...
> > What is a good rule of thumb for how much hull insurance should cost for
a new
> > seaplane pilot who buys a mid - 60's LA-4? 4% or more of hull value?
> > Thanks!
> >
> > --Marshall S.