Search Results for: insurance

American Eagle Insurance Co., the flagship of the American Eagle Group and the erstwhile official insurance company of the AOPA, slipped gurgling beneath the waves as it went into receivership late last year. The company had been under the conservatorship of the Texas state insurance department since the preceding July.

Most of its customers have found shelter elsewhere-either with other companies or through fronting arrangements with other underwriters. The large unanswered question, however, is whether Eagle will be able to pay claims relating to incurred-but-not-filed losses. We suspect that in this regard, some customers may come up short.

American Eagle and predecessor, A, had…

AOPA Replies on Eagle Insurance
Your June Keep Me Covered article on American Eagle Insurance left out a key detail that negates its conclusion. And it doesnt fully acknowledge AOPAs aggressive efforts to protect both our insureds and all American Eagle policyholders, including customers of independent brokers nationwide.

Author Jon Doolittle, owner of insurance broker Sutton James, failed to say that in states where Assumption of Loss Endorsements (ALEs) are not permitted, insureds enjoyedequivalent protection under a contract between Eagle and Zurich Re-insurance Corporation (ZRC).

Rather than hang on and hope for the best, AOPA worked proactively for…

[IMGCAP(1)]Do your friends snicker because you fly a Mooney and that turbine bully on the runway blasted gravel into your pitot tube? Feeling a little puny? Cant bear another flying season as the butt of jokes from real pilots who fly real airplanes?

Get your chin up off the runway and put your tail in the grass, because aviation gratification is just sixty grand away when you claim a new or recent model taildragger. Theyre out there: The American Champion line, Maule, Aviat Husky and the sort of new but still wildly expensive Cessna 180/185 or Piper Super Cub.

Most of these models are generally thought to be utility airplanes and they are that. But they also qualify as high-pri…

The cheapest flight insurance around comes not from your friendly underwriter-shopping broker but in the form of a little plastic cup that most owners take for granted.

With prices from $4.95 to $15.95, fuel testers don’t get much thought. Just root around for whatever is stuffed into the seat pocket, drain a slug of gas and get on your way.

Nonetheless, a couple of companies have taken a new look at the lowly fuel tester and none too soon, now that owners of new Cessna 172s are confronted with 13 sumps to drain and many airports have begun to frown on the practice of dumping gas on the ramp. It chews up the asphalt and, over time, leads to soil and water contamination. Although t…

As much as we loathe using clichs, we can think of one that describes the current aircraft insurance market: There’s good news and bad news.

The good news is that more companies are vying for business in a relatively flat market and financial markets are flush with cash. That puts downward pressure on rates, which owners will find agreeable.

The bad news is that virtually all of those companies have abandoned the option of writing high-limit coverage. These days, $1 million smooth is the max liability youre likely to see. That may be a non-issue for private owners but for anyone operating an aircraft for business use, the coverage squeeze is on.

Market Reshaped
For o…

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Ill begin with a conclusion: Financially, owning a twin is nuts.

I pay to haul around a lot of extra stuff to support a second engine, total horsepower is divided between two packages which complicates emergency decision making. And unless I continue to take serious dual every six months, Im probably not as safe as Id be in a single.

On the other hand, Ive been in general aviation for 30 years as an owner, instructor and attorney and I know that buying decisions arent always clear-eyed, unemotional examples of piercing analysis. You could argue that buying any airplane makes no sense at all. Make that times two for a twin.

When I mention to other pilots that I…

Its New Years eve 2000, the dawn of the great millennium and youve been tooling around the city sky line watching all the swell fireworks.

After you land back at homebase the taxiway lights suddenly flicker and go black, you get momentarily lost and chop up several light stanchions, hurling blue glass into the crisp night air. Damn, you mutter; Im in for an engine teardown.

So you call your insurance agent at home on New Years morning and report the bad news. No problem, he says, hell call you on Monday with claim information. Unfortunately, when Monday rolls around, the news gets worse. Youre not covered.

Turns out the taxiway lights were controlled by an airport computer th…

Three-Blade Props
Your article about three-blade props caught my eye right off. I have owned three Cessna 180s and have about 2500 hours in them. On the 1974 model I currently own (picture enclosed), I have recently done certain modifications including a three-blade prop that increased the speed in a significant way.

First, it has been my experience that most Cessna 180s are good for about 150 MPH at cruise and it doesnt make much difference up to about 7000 feet. Above that altitude, they lose speed and show reduced indicated air speed.

Indicated air speed on a standard 180 will be in the low 140 MPH. Above 6000 feet, this will fall to about 135 MPH at 9000 feet. You c…

In the world of biz jets, fractional ownership is the buzzword du jour.

The concept is simple enough. Rather than tying up a few million in a solely owned jet, a company buys a share of a single airplane thats part of a larger fleet. The buy-in entitles the company to a certain amount of yearly fleet usage without the bother and expense of maintaining a flight department.

Evidently, plenty of companies find the fractional ownership numbers to their liking, given the astonishing success of NetJets, a share-a-jet marketing concept developed by Executive Jet Management, a management company based in Columbus, Ohio.

Last year, NetJet had 95 aircraft and has announced plans to buy a…

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A long-standing axiom is that speed sells. Thats true, but only half way: The other side of the coin is load carrying, a trait that for some is more important than getting there fast.

Periodically, the public decides that big, heavy load-haulers are desirable (usually when fuel is relatively cheap). That accounts for the current popularity of enormous truck-like vehicles on the roads, and the skyrocketing prices of airplanes like the Cessna 206.

This aerial sport/ute is not fast, but its stable, rugged, reliable, has six real seats and is remarkable for being able to carry a half-ton or so after the tanks are topped off.

So popular is the combination of simplicity…

Overheard in the airport caf: I don’t know how you can fly an airplane with the tail on backwards.

At least the tail doesnt fall off.

Yeah? Well, your mother wears combat boots!

And so goes the seemingly circular debate between Bonanza and Mooney pilots. On the surface, its good-natured one-up-manship, the sort of banter any self-respecting pilot is expected to engage in while the kitchen rustles up the $100 hamburger.

But deep in their hearts, the pilots of both Mos and Bos don’t really believe the other guys airplane is inferior. In a moment of quiet reflection, theyll concede that the other brand is a broken down piece of crap that never should have gotten loos…

For those of us in the market for aircraft insurance, it is, as they say in the classics, the best of times and the worst of times.

Fueled by a robust economy, the markets are brimming with capital to underwrite everything flyable. And yet, many buyers and brokers are finding the coverage they want hard or impossible to come by.

One of the longest periods of post-war prosperity shows signs of continuing into the next millennium. As a result, pilots are buying their first airplanes in relatively large numbers and even more are moving up to bigger and faster models, often when they lack the experience to do so, at least in the insurers eyes.

General aviation manufacturers a…