Glider Insurance, which to choose?

I called Costello insurance today for a quote. Boy was I suprised.
For an antique ASW-15 it's just under a thousand dollars a year.
Other club members, with more expensive gliders and less experience
than I have, get insurance for half of what I was quoted. Costello
gets insurance through AIG. I guess with their government bailout,
minus the expenses from the warm sunny california executive party,
they must need a good chunk of change for their operation.

Does anyone know of other glider insurance companies out there?

On Nov 3, 8:01*pm, wrote:
Does anyone know of other glider insurance companies out there?

Try LL Johns

On Nov 3, 7:01*pm, wrote:
I called Costello insurance today for a quote. *Boy was I suprised.
For an antique ASW-15 it's *just under a thousand dollars a year.
Other club members, with more expensive gliders and less experience
than I have, get insurance for half of what I was quoted. *Costello
gets insurance through AIG. *I guess with their government bailout,
minus the expenses from the warm sunny california executive party,
they must need a good chunk of change for their operation.

Does anyone know of other glider insurance companies out there?

Just under $1k could be a bargain, you don't state your experience or
experience on type. Did you get all the applicable discounts? Costello
will apply discounts for SSA and AOPA memberships. Your current
experience/proficiency determined by the number of landings (not
hours) you've flown (I think its is total and in the last year). You
also can get credit for commercial ratings.

Other insurance companies advertise in SSA Soaring Magazine. I have no
experience with them.

You can also lower costs somewhat by taking the glider off-line over
winter and reducing insured value, but obviously there are risks in
that. BTW we recently had a nice Cobra trailer destroyed in California
in a rollover accident, the glider was not in the trailer and the car
driver was fine. One of the Cobra dealers mentioned to me that the
trailers are often significantly underinsured.


Darryl

On trailer insurance my open trailer is insured through Geico for chump
change per year. Told them what it was and what it was for. Don't know
how much they would charge for a new Cobra but calling your car insurance
company might help with the cost of trailer insurance.

that. BTW we recently had a nice Cobra trailer destroyed in California
in a rollover accident, the glider was not in the trailer and the car
driver was fine. One of the Cobra dealers mentioned to me that the
trailers are often significantly underinsured.


Darryl

I used to insure with Avemco, but now, I go through Costello, for both
glider and trailer. They were cheaper than Avemco. However, when I
did ding my glider about 13 or 14 years ago, Avemco was VERY easy to
work with on getting the glider fixed.

I haven't dinged my glider since and haven't had a chance to
personally see how Costello works with personal claims, but our club
has suffered some damage to club ships and Costello was VERY easy to
work with on straightening things out. I would imagine Costello would
work claims for individuals as easily as they did with our club.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

This is a warning about medical coverage. If your aviation policy has a
small medical incidentals coverage and it is brought into play, you can
have SIGNIFICANT difficulties with Medicare if the latter is your primary
medical coverage. The arrogance inside the Medicare system is
unbelievable; they refused to look at facts, refused to look at simple
arithmetic, refused to accept evidence from AIG, and from my hospital
financial director, who supported my case. After two years of delaying
tactics, they finally met PART of their obligation after a second
intervention by my congressman's office. They allowed no recourse,
handed the case off to a different person at every juncture, split the
records up between two offices in two different states (and the offices
would not share records with each other). Their telephone counselors
would not give their surnames, nor the names of their supervisors, nor
allow supervisors to be addressed. I was told I could not have a personal
hearing or meet with any of their personnel -- even after one of them, God
bless her heart, said that I was on the hook because someone there "had
not done their job," and that the case should never have come up.

Fortunately for me, my secondary insurance picked up the remainder of the
bills, but they could not be called upon until the Medicare case was
closed.

I have lots more to say and I could turn this into a real rant, but I
think I'd better stop.

At 14:08 04 November 2008, rlovinggood wrote:
I used to insure with Avemco, but now, I go through Costello, for both
glider and trailer. They were cheaper than Avemco. However, when I
did ding my glider about 13 or 14 years ago, Avemco was VERY easy to
work with on getting the glider fixed.

I haven't dinged my glider since and haven't had a chance to
personally see how Costello works with personal claims, but our club
has suffered some damage to club ships and Costello was VERY easy to
work with on straightening things out. I would imagine Costello would
work claims for individuals as easily as they did with our club.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

On Nov 4, 7:00*am, Gregg Ballou wrote:
On trailer insurance my open trailer is insured through Geico for chump
change per year. *Told them what it was and what it was for. * Don't know
how much they would charge for a new Cobra but calling your car insurance
company might help with the cost of trailer insurance.

This only works if the auto insurer will cover it for REPLACEMENT
value. A brand new Cobra trailer will run around $15K. If the
insurance company decides to depreciate it at the same rate as a car,
you're going to wish you did pay that $100/yr to bundle it in with the
sailplane.

-Tom
Disclaimer: All numbers above are "off the cuff", so may be out of
date.

On Nov 3, 8:01*pm, wrote:
*Costello
gets insurance through AIG. *I guess with their government bailout,
minus the expenses from the warm sunny california executive party,
they must need a good chunk of change for their operation.


I think you will find that this "AIG" is not the same as that "AIG".
Two completely separate companies according to press releases I saw at
the time of the "bailout". With only 3 letters in the name it's no
wonder there are duplicates. I think A for Aircraft and A for
American in this case, but my attention span is short and I didn't
verify that.

Andy

On Nov 4, 9:36*am, Andy wrote:
On Nov 3, 8:01*pm, wrote:

*Costello
gets insurance through AIG. *I guess with their government bailout,
minus the expenses from the warm sunny california executive party,
they must need a good chunk of change for their operation.

I think you will find that this "AIG" is not the same as that "AIG".
Two completely separate companies according to press releases I saw at
the time of the "bailout". *With only 3 letters in the name it's no
wonder there are duplicates. *I think A for Aircraft and A for
American in this case, but my attention span is short and I didn't
verify that.

Andy

If I understand it correctly, AIG Aviation Inc is part of the larger
AIG holding company, however, owing to regulatory insurance
requirements, there were specific reserve requirements that were not
related to the financials of the larger AIG holding company. At no
time were coverage and claims in danger. If the larger AIG had not
been bailed out, AIG Aviation may have been sold off to another
group. Assistant VP of AIG Aviation spoke to this at the recent SSA
board meeting. As to which would have been the better long term
solution, well.....

Frank Whiteley

On Nov 4, 8:27*am, 5Z wrote:
On Nov 4, 7:00*am, Gregg Ballou wrote:

On trailer insurance my open trailer is insured through Geico for chump
change per year. *Told them what it was and what it was for. * Don't know
how much they would charge for a new Cobra but calling your car insurance
company might help with the cost of trailer insurance.

This only works if the auto insurer will cover it for REPLACEMENT
value. *A brand new Cobra trailer will run around $15K. *If the
insurance company decides to depreciate it at the same rate as a car,
you're going to wish you did pay that $100/yr to bundle it in with the
sailplane.

-Tom
Disclaimer: *All numbers above are "off the cuff", so may be out of
date.

My single axle 18m Cobra trailer cost ~$17k (at today's exchange rate)
two years ago, plus you have to pay to deliver it from the factory to
the port, shipping to the USA, insurance en-route, pickup from the
port of you are paying somebody to do that, etc. So add another few $k
for all that. And I assume Cobra prices have gone up a little since
the. Is there a lot of tow-out/rigging gear? maybe another $k for
that? Lets call it low $20k for replacement cost. I'm guessing a 15m
Cobra trailer well optioned, delivered etc. will be ~$18k?

Darryl