Commercial Insurance Question

[Fearless Tower]

Looking for advice here:

I'm in the process of getting my LOA to hop rides in the Waco. FAA stuff is on track, but I have a decision to make on the insurance:

I have discussed this with my broker who handles my personal use policies and he can get me a commercial policy. It is twice the cost of my current policy, but doable. This was my original plan.

Separately the local flight school/maintenance owner that maintains the airplane offered another option: put the aircraft on their fleet policy with me as the only named pilot of the airplane which would probably have a noticeable cost reduction. According to the owner, the policy would cover me for both commercial rides and personal flying.

My question is: are there any pitfalls to putting the aircraft on their fleet policy? Am I opening myself up to some vulnerability by insuring through them?

 

[midlifeflyer]

Depends what the policy and your contract with the fleet operator say.

 

[Fearless Tower]

Depends what the policy and your contract with the fleet operator say.

What do I need to look for in their policy?

 

[bradg33]

What do I need to look for in their policy?

Making sure you're a named-insured for one. Remember, it's THEIR insurance policy, not yours. By default, the Flight School is going to be the insured, and the one to get paid if there's a loss. Further, keep in mind that by using someone else's insurance, you are going to lose some control. What if the school stops paying the premiums? What if the school decides to change the limits without consulting you?

Without giving it anything close to a full analysis, doing things like this to save a buck or two can, at the end of the day, end up costing you far more if something goes haywire. Who knows how the insurance company will react to a claim if/when it finds out that the Flight School was never really "operating" or otherwise using the airplane, and that it was just on the School's insurance policy as a means of securing you cheaper insurance?

 

[midlifeflyer]

Making sure you're a named-insured for one.

Emphasis on the "for one."

What do I need to look for in their policy?

This will sound weird but it's true: I would not not know which parts of their policy would be important to look at without looking at the policy as a whole.

Reviewing aviation policies (both commercial and individual) and other types of insurance policies I have found "gotchas" in all sorts of provisions from the summary sheet identifying the insured, owner, etc, to the definitions, to the coverage terms to the exclusions to the...

It's the need for the "full analysis" brad mentioned.