Long Term Motorglider Launch costs

One cost that has not been mentioned is the insurance premium on a motorglider. Potential hazards and risks aside, you are paying your premium based on a much higher hull value. Anybody care to chime in with premium costs on say, a DG-400? That would give a decent reference point when compared to a pure glider of the same era and roughly the same performance such as the ASW-20. Newer ships will have bigger numbers for sure, but it would be interesting to get some data.

wrote on 12/15/2019 5:24 AM:
One cost that has not been mentioned is the insurance premium on a motorglider. Potential hazards and risks aside, you are paying your premium based on a much higher hull value. Anybody care to chime in with premium costs on say, a DG-400? That would give a decent reference point when compared to a pure glider of the same era and roughly the same performance such as the ASW-20. Newer ships will have bigger numbers for sure, but it would be interesting to get some data.

I suggest you contact your current insurer, present them with the two gliders you
want to compare and the hull value you give them. That would be the best data you
can get. My experience is insurance premiums rise more slowly the hull value; for
example, adding $50K motor value to a $100K glider will increase the premium
significantly less than 50%. But maybe that's just me and my ratings and crash
free history over decades, and Costello. Ask them about your costs: Quick, easy,
and relevant.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

My experience is that hull premium scales almost directly proportional to insured value. As I recall, through Costello, it is about 1.5 to 1.8% of insured value to obtain in hull coverage (ground and in motion) for a year. This is based on a sample from early fiberglass sailplanes up through a complex two seat motorglider. I can't readily find my data on motor versus non motor for liability, but on all my gliders, liability coverage is the same, regardless of model. They may have messed up on my two seater, as I think the premium is the same on it for liability as it is on the single seaters.

If you are with Costello, and paying more than 1.8% of insured hull value per year, you are probably flying a plane that has had more claim dollars paid. I guess I am lucky that I am the dataset for most of my planes!

Steve Leonard