I dinged my wing tip recently and paid to have it replaced out of pocket, hoping to avoid a claim and higher rates when I renew. In hindsight, I wonder if I didn't do myself any favors. I just got my application from my broker for insurance renewal. One of the questions is "in the past 5 years, have you had any Accidents, Incidents, or Claims? See where I'm going? Then again, maybe I'm reading too much into it and an incident is "scored" differently than a claim and I'm making much ado about nothing. Thoughts?
Was it an "accident" or "incident" by the FAA's definition? Is there a report anywhere? You're probably overthinking it.
Not an accident, reviewing the definition of incident (which I learned many moons ago that if an incident is any mishap in an aircraft that doesn't fall under the definition of accident... I see there is some gray area there... No report, other than in my airframe logs of the repairs.
here is the google definition I found of a aviation incident....Incident means an occurrence other than an accident, associated with the operation of an aircraft, which affects or could affect the safety of operations. Was your wing time damage associated with the "operation of the Aircraft"? Probably open to some interpretation, but for most part for me that would mean the aircraft moving under it's own power. Brian
"I dinged my wingtip" can mean a lot of things. Did you whack it into a 747 while taxiing and are now waiting for the lawsuit, or did you drop a ladder on it in the hangar?
Let’s say you were pushing the plane back into the hangar & you hit & cracked a wingtip, fixed with replacement and painting. I’d just fix it & move along. Say you hit a firm pole while taxiing, no damage to the pole, but the wingtip is damaged. I’d still just fix it myself. I’m sure if you ask enough people, they’ll have you reporting to higher authorities, in a suit. If other property or vehicles are involve, could be more of an issue. Think of the bush flyer, a stick kicks up & leaves a dent, what you gonna do?
If the damage is minor enough that it's safely flyable, it doesn't rise to the level of "incident" and is thus not reportable. Around most of the airports I frequent, if somebody bends an airplane and nobody's hurt, their first priority is usually to get it inside a hangar and close the doubt before anybody sees or reports it. With cell phones and cameras everywhere that's not as easy as it used to be.
OP - "Hey guys, tell me what to do, I dinged my wing, fixed it myself, now I want to know how I should answer this insurance question?" (paraphrased) Guys - "Well, what happened, you could've been moving, you could've hit something taxiing, you could've struck a tip on landing, could be hangar rash, help us out a little." OP - " Tee, hee, hee, I'm not telling."
Well, the good book says: Be sure your ____ will find you out. At this point I'd go with the "disclose it to the insurance peeps" option, because likelihood is if you try to hide it, it will eventually come out.
My advice is to STFU. seriously. You’d be a fool helping nobody to even remember such a minor thing happened. Other than as a tool to avoid doing it again.
