While it’s easy to peg GA’s continuing decline on rising avgas prices or threadbare FBO aircraft, the reality is more diverse. It’s a “death by a thousand cuts,” where cost and the fleet are major wounds, but free time, demographics, and a score of other factors play in.
One of the nicks is insurance. Specifically, there’s a hole that may be swallowing up exactly the kind of new pilots who could breathe some life back into the industry: moderate-net-worth individuals with low pilot time.These are folks with the financial resources to rent aircraft regularly, and probably step into ownership or shared ownership, but who could be completely devastated financially by a serious lawsuit after an accident.We heard from one 63-year-old, 220-hour pilot who said, “I would not drive with only $100,000 liability coverage, so it makes no sense to fly with that little either. I’ve tried several insurance companies, but no one will consider higher limits for a renter, or even an owner with under 500 or 1000 hours.”