The best insurance advice for pilots and aircraft owners

Two words: Always ask.

“If you see your rate going up, or you’re concerned about your age, call your insurance company or agent and ask, ‘what can I do?’” advises Kim Skipper, Aviation Underwriting Manager for Avemco Insurance Company, the only direct writer of general aviation insurance.

It’s especially important to ask if you are thinking about buying a new plane.

In fact, It’s critical to call your insurance company before you write that check. 

Say you are a low-time student pilot learning to fly in your older Cessna 182 that’s insured for about $50,000.

But you’ve got your eye on a brand new one that you’re going to buy just as soon as you pass that checkride.

Slow down and pick up the phone.

“Just because an insurance company is insuring you in that $50,000 Cessna doesn’t mean you can go buy a brand new one at $700,000,” she says. “While the risk for a 182 in your mind may be the same, I’m looking at paying $50,000 out on a relatively low-time pilot. Now, do I really want a similar, low-time pilot putting $700,000 on the line?”

The answer is no and Skipper has had to give that answer many heart-breaking times.

“I can tell you one of the most difficult calls we deal with is the person who has gone out and already bought the plane,” she says. “And if they had called beforehand I would have told him, ‘I can’t do $700,000, but I’d be willing to go to maybe $150,000 or $200,000.”

“Then you get an idea of what the insurance company is willing to put you in,” she continues. “And while it might not be your ideal airplane today, it’s a way to get you to where you want to be.”