Few Observations

On Tue, 14 Jun 2005 23:24:16 -0400, "Morgans"
wrote:


And therein lies the rub. Insurance is run off of statistics. As a whole,
insurance says experimental is a bad risk, because some (a few) use
homedepote valves, and that will cause problems, (sometimes) and there goes
the risk up.

On the other hand, the well done experimentals you mentioned are safer (as
an individual case) than a spam can that has been pencil whipped, but
because fewer spam cans are poorly maintained in that manner, they are a
better risk. (as a whole category) The insurance company does not go out
and inspect each individual experimental, or each spam can.

Too bad they do not have the ability to inspect each one. That would be a
great incentive for change, and make insurance a much better bargain for the
safe builder. It would probably make general aviation a much safer "place",
too.

I agree on the statistics thing, but it's no different than your house
or car - you are in a group. A well built RV is in there with the
ultralight with a motorcycle engine, Home Depot cables, and Ace
hardware bolts. I seriously doubt that an insurance company has the
expertise to know how well an aircraft was built even if they could
look at each one. Something to think about is the great Steve Whitman
and his wife died because he used improper materials to cover his
aircraft and used hardware store stuff in the aileron hinges. The
reality is Steve was flying an un-airworthy aircraft because of the
way he built it. If you couldn't trust Steve to build one right, who
can you trust? Do you think an insurance company could tell he used
regular dope on Ceconite instead of what the Ceconite STC calls for?
I'm and A&P and IA and I couldn't. With any aircraft, you have to
trust the builder and maintainer. Those two things are generally
known on certified aircraft.

Someone here asked me why should I let insurance companies run my
life. It's very simple. I die in an RV and the wife gets zip - nada
from the life insurance company. I think that our society is becoming
so self-centered that we forget about all the folks around us and how
our actions effect them. It's a symptom of our feel-good mentality -
do it because it feels good to me. I'm sure, with enough money I could
get the coverage, but we have to balance all the factors and decide
what makes the most sense. I can rent a nice fast Mooney once in a
while for less all-up cost than building something comparable. Of
course, I didn't have the fun of building.

There are times during the interior completion of a new corporate
aircraft that we test fly them prior to the interior STC being issued.
They have EXPERIMENTAL plastered by the door, a ferry permit in the
holder, and my insurance doesn't cover me. During the flight I did
yesterday, the new Gulfstream G-550 I spent six hours flying around in
was in same group to my life insuranc carrier as a homebuilt. I took
the risk because of all the deep pockets involved. At least my wife
had someone other than Bob the first time builder to sue if I would
have become a smoking hole.

Don