flyingcheesehead
Touchdown! Greaser!
Pulled from another thread...
Don't sell yourself short here - Yes, the insurance companies make a lot of rules, but those rules CAN be made to fit your situation, and frankly, a lot of stuff that FBO's blame on insurance doesn't actually have anything to do with their insurance policy, they just don't want to have to defend their lame rental policies.
Case in point: Wisconsin Aviation. (MSN, RYV, and UNU.) Their entire rental line is available for solo with the required hourly minimums and they have several HP/complex types (Dakota, Arrow, Seneca, Aztec). They also allow landings on grass, and aside from the standard "must have flown one of our planes in the last 90 days" policy, they don't place any restrictions on the pilot beyond the FAR's. Oh, and the best part? The renter is covered as named insured, and is only responsible for the deductible which IIRC is $1200 for fixed gear and $1800 for retracts and twins. Oh, and their rental rates are mostly reasonable - A 172N currently goes for around $89 wet, including fuel surcharge (Base rate is $69, fuel surcharge right now is in the $18-20 range). The Arrow is somewhere in the $120 range. They even have an SR22 at RYV for $235.
Now, they do have two things going for them: A large fleet and their own maintenance shop (ie, repairs are cheaper as long as the accident happens at home!) so if you're working for a small school without a shop it'll be more difficult. But, if you let the insurance companies know you want reasonable rates and terms and that you're not going to let them walk all over you, they should be willing to work with you to develop reasonable practices that will still allow dual.
Another thing that leads me to believe the insurance companies aren't really dictating things as strictly as the FBO's would like you to believe: I've been at a couple of places where the right people can waive even the hourly minimums that they state - For instance at Wisconsin Aviation, the president, the GM, and the flight school manager all have the power to waive their minimums (for instance, the mins on the Dakota are 150TT and 5 in type as well as the appropriate endorsement - I was allowed to rent the Dakota with less than 150TT). At another flight school in Florida they wanted 5-10 hours in their new G1000 182, but since I had 50 hours in 182's and I was familiar with the G1000 (even though I'd only flown it in the DA40 and on simulators) they let me rent it after a standard 1.1 hour checkout flight.
Something that would be a good starting point is something more like what I experienced at LNA when I rented a 172 there. I read through their rental agreement and nearly every normal restriction (such as landing on grass) was there, but pretty much every one of them ended with an exception like "Unless the Renter has had dual instruction on a grass field and has landed on grass in the past 90 days." That should satisfy the insurance company, but also allow you to do the right thing for your customers. Even if they like ya, they'd like to fly without you in the right seat sometimes! Plus, a nice HP/complex bird is something that people want to use for long trips, and nobody wants to pay a CFI to sit in a hotel somewhere and pay them for all the flight time and have to leave one of their family members at home so the CFI can ride along.
Good luck!
Don't sell yourself short here - Yes, the insurance companies make a lot of rules, but those rules CAN be made to fit your situation, and frankly, a lot of stuff that FBO's blame on insurance doesn't actually have anything to do with their insurance policy, they just don't want to have to defend their lame rental policies.
Case in point: Wisconsin Aviation. (MSN, RYV, and UNU.) Their entire rental line is available for solo with the required hourly minimums and they have several HP/complex types (Dakota, Arrow, Seneca, Aztec). They also allow landings on grass, and aside from the standard "must have flown one of our planes in the last 90 days" policy, they don't place any restrictions on the pilot beyond the FAR's. Oh, and the best part? The renter is covered as named insured, and is only responsible for the deductible which IIRC is $1200 for fixed gear and $1800 for retracts and twins. Oh, and their rental rates are mostly reasonable - A 172N currently goes for around $89 wet, including fuel surcharge (Base rate is $69, fuel surcharge right now is in the $18-20 range). The Arrow is somewhere in the $120 range. They even have an SR22 at RYV for $235.
Now, they do have two things going for them: A large fleet and their own maintenance shop (ie, repairs are cheaper as long as the accident happens at home!) so if you're working for a small school without a shop it'll be more difficult. But, if you let the insurance companies know you want reasonable rates and terms and that you're not going to let them walk all over you, they should be willing to work with you to develop reasonable practices that will still allow dual.
Another thing that leads me to believe the insurance companies aren't really dictating things as strictly as the FBO's would like you to believe: I've been at a couple of places where the right people can waive even the hourly minimums that they state - For instance at Wisconsin Aviation, the president, the GM, and the flight school manager all have the power to waive their minimums (for instance, the mins on the Dakota are 150TT and 5 in type as well as the appropriate endorsement - I was allowed to rent the Dakota with less than 150TT). At another flight school in Florida they wanted 5-10 hours in their new G1000 182, but since I had 50 hours in 182's and I was familiar with the G1000 (even though I'd only flown it in the DA40 and on simulators) they let me rent it after a standard 1.1 hour checkout flight.
Something that would be a good starting point is something more like what I experienced at LNA when I rented a 172 there. I read through their rental agreement and nearly every normal restriction (such as landing on grass) was there, but pretty much every one of them ended with an exception like "Unless the Renter has had dual instruction on a grass field and has landed on grass in the past 90 days." That should satisfy the insurance company, but also allow you to do the right thing for your customers. Even if they like ya, they'd like to fly without you in the right seat sometimes! Plus, a nice HP/complex bird is something that people want to use for long trips, and nobody wants to pay a CFI to sit in a hotel somewhere and pay them for all the flight time and have to leave one of their family members at home so the CFI can ride along.
Good luck!
until I read on.
