On Mar 21, 9:38*am, "Steve Foley" wrote:
"BillJ" wrote in message

...

says rates

* (now $35000 will go up 10% if we do, but not until next renewal.

Is that a typo?

Why would it be a typo?

Look at it this way. The average private airplane flies about 26
hours per year (that includes partnerships but not clubs, AFAIK, and
the number is a few years old so I imagine it is less now). The
median is lower still, because you can't go to less than zero but
there are quite a few of us in the 100-200 hour range.

Back before I maxed everything, I used to get a small discount for
flying over 100 hours a year. Not a huge one, but it was something.
Think about that. The plane is flying 4 times as much as average
(probably 5x to 6x the median) and yet the overall premium (and thus
the overall risk) is less. That makes sense - it indicates that
proficiency is more important than exposure, and that's consistent
with other information we have. What is that other information?
Well, we know that personal flying is the most dangerous kind of
flying there is, worse than cropdusting (See any Nall Report), and
that by comparison flight instruction and self-flown business travel
are relatively safe.

So what have we got? Well, we've got 20 pilots, all of them flying
too little, and with access to an IFR airplane. It would honestly be
safer if they were student pilots - then they would be under the
supervision of a CFI and flying regularly. So what's the private rate
on a student pilot in a nice IFR Warrior, full coverage? $1500/yr?
Maybe more? $35000 for 20 pilots who are more dangerous sounds pretty
fair to me.

I know that a flight school local to my old home field was paying well
over $20/plane to insure its fleet, and the average plane int that
fleet was a beat up, piece of crap Warrior that wasn't worth much.
They also had something like $5K or $10K deductibles, which in effect
meant the students and CFI's all had to carry their own insurance.
Once again, the rate seems in line with what's out there.

For a long time, aviation underwriters lost money on club/FBO
policies. It was sort of a genleman's agreement - they had to keep
those places in business to assure a supply of new pilots, who would
become owners and keep the profitable part of the business (personal
aircraft policies) alive. Now that's over, and they're charging what
it takes to make money. That means accepting the reality that a plane
that is flown 250 hours a year by 20 different people is subject to
more than 20 times the risk of loss then a plane that is flown 250
hours a year by one pilot, and should cost more.

Michael