Renter's Insurance - AOPA? Other? Experiences?

Hobobiker

Hobobiker

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Hobo
Okay, I've "trusted" my FBO thus far about their insurance covering me for everything but I would pay a $2500 deductible. While they might provide the specifics to me, I haven't asked yet and many of the insurance discussions have me ready to buy my own renter's insurance - especially since I'm nearing my checkride and will soon be flying passengers around other than my CFI. I know AOPA offers a $175/year package and maybe others, but I wanted to ask the group their experiences on this, recommendations, etc.

I'm still searching the threads in the forum as well and don't want to duplicate other discussions, but many that I've found thus far are somewhat dated...

Thanks everyone!

BTW: if the current thinking is still between AOPA and Avemco being very similar in price and value then that's exactly what I've found in my searches thus far...
 
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I purchased the AOPA basic rental policy after I got my PPL. I think is the $175 a year that you mentioned. I luckily bought into a partnership that carries insurance for us on our plane, but kept the rental policy in case I need to rent. Depending on where you rent from, you may need a solid renter's policy. My local FBO requires 60k hull / 1mil liability renter's insurance in order to rent their planes.
 
I purchased my renters insurance from them, and it was all done on line with little hassel. They had all sorts of limits, and because of my profession I pick the highest. It was about 200 a year, and if I remember correctly it was brokered by AOPA, but not through AOPA. Likewise when I purchase my plane, I went through AOPA, but again they were just brokers my actual insurance is through a bonafide insurance company, and not AOPA.
 
Just remember that most renters insurance pays for accidents caused by the renter pilot. Landing accidents, lost control in winds, gear up (pilot did not put it down), ran out of fuel. An incident that can be contributed to "pilot error".

If that out landing is because of a mechanical failure, magneto failed, swallowed a valve, etc. it is not pilot error. Be sure you know what your renters insurance really covers.

Also liability limits are normally $1M, limited to $100K per person. I don't know of many renters policies that will provide a "smooth $1M" coverage.

Edit: I have $25K AVEMCO, web based, never had to file a claim.
I've thought of upgrading to $50K hull coverage, but my local school only requires $5K.
 
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douglas393 said:
I purchased my renters insurance from them, and it was all done on line with little hassel. They had all sorts of limits, and because of my profession I pick the highest. It was about 200 a year, and if I remember correctly it was brokered by AOPA, but not through AOPA. Likewise when I purchase my plane, I went through AOPA, but again they were just brokers my actual insurance is through a bonafide insurance company, and not AOPA.
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What limits did you get for $200/year, was that just liability or did it include hull coverage? When I had renters insurance from them I think it was about 250 with only 10k of hull coverage.
 
I bought AOPA renters. Then when my son started flying bought a policy for him. I renewed and they gave me10% off. No hassle, great service. Very satisfied.
 
I dropped AVEMCO when they scr**ed over my previous flying club on the club's insurance rates/rules, so I switched to AOPA's renter's insurance and have been a happy customer since then.
 
I've bought AOPA non-owned insurance for several years. For $200 I think you're crazy to fly ANY plane you don't own without it.
 
Limit of Liability (Bodily Injury and Property Damage) of $1,000,000/$100,000 would be $209/yr

Limit of Liability (Physical Damage to Non-Owned aircraft) would be anywhere from $94/yr for $5,000 to $507/yr for $60K
 
The policy AOPA sells is through Chartis. There are a couple of other providers of non-owned coverage, some of them have quirks that may be of interest to buyers:

- Avemco is a 'per person' sublimit of 100k. So if you taxi into a lineman, that recovery is limited to 100k and not the full 500 or 1mil value of the policy.
- Avemco 'stacks' their liability limits with limits on a owned aircraft, as long as you dont own more than 20%. This can be interesting if you are in a club or larger partnership.
- Avemco offers a rider for flying CAP planes. Some of the reimbursed flying for CAP (or other SAR organizations) could be considered 'for compensation' under a non-owned policy.
- Avemco offers multi-engine coverage.


- CV Starr is another provider of non-owned policies. They offer coverage for multi-engine up to 350hp/side, they also offer 200k 'per passenger' sublimits on the liability side (everyone else seems to be 100k).
 
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Just remember that even if you're covered by the FBO's policy and choose only to insure for the deductible, the FBO may have other uninsured losses for which you may be legally responsible, such as loss of use of the aircraft, so just insuring for the deductible may not be enough.
 
I had AOPA insurance but switched to Avemco because AOPA wouldn't cover me for multi-engine because I only had about 80 hours. Avemco covered me no problem, and it was about 30% cheaper than AOPA would have been.
 
As a student pilot, my flight school required renter's before I could solo in their antique 172s--- I bought AOPA for $175ish/yr. Easy and a decent value.

Bought my own plane after that, so further rentals not too much anticipated in my future.
 
mcoflyer said:
I had AOPA insurance but switched to Avemco because AOPA wouldn't cover me for multi-engine because I only had about 80 hours. Avemco covered me no problem, and it was about 30% cheaper than AOPA would have been.
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I started with AVEMCO for the Multi coverage and have not changed. I'm not renting Multi now, so I dropped that portion. Avemco also offers discounts for completing online courses through AOPA or FAA safety.gov.
 
BillTIZ said:
I started with AVEMCO for the Multi coverage and have not changed. I'm not renting Multi now, so I dropped that portion. Avemco also offers discounts for completing online courses through AOPA or FAA safety.gov.
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Avemco cracks me up. They gave me a 10% discount for my brand-new multi rating as it qualified under their discount policy.
 
weilke said:
Avemco cracks me up. They gave me a 10% discount for my brand-new multi rating as it qualified under their discount policy.
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Yes, they give the discount for recent training, so passing a check ride to add a rating counted. Don't expect that at renewal unless you've added another rating or completed some qualifying online courses. I believe most online Wings courses may count.
 
Avemco here too.

Whatever you do, call for rates if you're higher time or advanced ratings for discount. As someone else said, there's a discount for recent training too.
 
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