On 27-Aug-2004, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

I'm not so sure about that. I passed a lot of insurance milestones
in my first year of ownership (including getting my instrument rating
and 100 make&model, retract, etc) and my insurance only went down about
10%. It will take years to make back the cost of the IR, but that's not
why I did it!


I think it depends to a large extent on the make/model involved. For simple
airplanes like a C-172, having an IR probably will not have much impact on
insurance rates. But on a complex, high performance plane the savings could
be substantial. This is understandable considering the relative risk: A
VFR-only pilot will be much safer scud-running in marginal VFR conditions in
a 172 than in a Bonanza.

I've been IFR rated for 30 years, but when two pilots who had not quite
finished their UFR training became partners in my Arrow, insurance went up
by about $600/year. Went back down after they got their ratings.

Getting an IR isn't cheap, but unless you fly exclusively in some place like
Arizona or Florida, it is pretty much a necessity for extracting real
transportation value (as opposed to just recreation) from an airplane.
--
-Elliott Drucker