Buttman wrote:

If an insurance company can argue they don't owe anything because the
pilot deliberately took off 30 pounds over max gross, then they can
equally argue that they don't owe anything when a pilot deliberately
launches into a thunderstorm filled area.

"Deliberate" is the salient factor here.

If you inadvertently spin a 172 because you fail to keep the ball
centered on departure, that's different than loading it up with your
friends and deliberately spinning it despite the "SPINS PROHIBITED"
placard on the panel.


Imagine what it would be like if you get into a automobile crash, and
have the insurance company ignore your claim because the police
determined you were going 57mph in a 55 zone.

Or 100mph, and you were drunk, and the families of your deceased
passengers are suing you for a million each.

The lawsuits against Jeff Ethell and Jack Erickson of the Tillamook Air
Museum come to mind. They got in trouble because Jeff was approved to
fly one of the P-38s, but he flew the other (one was an experimental,
the other wasn't. I can't remember which but he crashed the one he
wasn't approved to fly.)

-c