Ron wrote:
Just a question to see if this is typical. Evidently the only agency
now
willing to insure Flying Club high performance retractables is AOPA.
Its
great they are stepping up to help AOPA members, we have a 210 and
Avemco
has left the market.

The first question you need to ask yourself is WHY did Avemco leave the
market? And the answer is that high performance retracts in clubs have
an unattractive loss history, especially when flown by the
inexperienced pilot.

However the new policy in effect for our club will be 250TT (good -
it used
to be 350), 50 hours retractable, 25 in type. Is this typical for
other
clubs with AOPA?

It is from what I have seen. What's more, it's actually better than
what I see at FBO's, the few times an FBO even has an airplane like
that to rent.

Who is going to be willing to pay for 25 hours with an instructor?

Very few, and that's the point. The goal is to not insure the
transition pilot, but only a pilot who is already expereinced in that
kind of airplane. As an added benefit, the plane flies fewer hours,
and since it sits a lot it's available to the few experienced members
who can fly it, and who will fly it more.

Remember
this is a flying club where members supposedly are able to move up to
planes
as they gain experience.

The concept of simply moving up as you gain experience is going by the
wayside. People are simply not learning the skills necessary to do
that, and insurance companies are catching on. Now they want to make
sure that experience is gained in the same class of airplane, and
plenty of it - with an instructor along to reduce the risk.

That is a lot of money and time to haul an
instructor around if you were able to get Bonanza or other comparable
time.

And I have no doubt that if you had a pilot with 1000 hours, 500 of
them Bonanza/Comanche time, you could name him at no additional cost
with a minimal (5 hours at most) chechout. That's the kind of pilot
the insurers want to see high performance retracts.

Did the high performance airplane just receive a death sentence for
clubs?

Probably. The realistic way to fly a high performance complex airplane
is group ownership, and if you're not going to be flying it enough to
justify owning a 1/4 share, then you really shouldn't be flying it
anyway.

Michael