"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:LXsZa.113566$uu5.16240@sccrnsc04...
Probably no sponsor for the insurance money to fly it there and back.
It cost $70k for the two days of the initial flight test in March.
They flew it to Dayton, but I do not know who paid the bills.

Wonder what kind of insurance you can get on a one-of-a-kind plane like
Glacier Girl?

I would think liability, and not much more...
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

I've been up to Glacier Girl's home field to see it a couple of times. It is
a unique aircraft, but (IMO) they have placed an unrealsitically high value
on it. They told me that it is insured for $6,000,000. That is apparently
what they have invested in it, but it is very arguable that any P-38, even
theirs, could command a price like that in the market.

Another issue is that there are less than a half dozen people in the world
they can get authorized to fly it by their insurance company. And to think,
the AAF used to turn 20 year olds loose in 'em every day! In addition to
insurance costs, they indicated that it cost 'em a substantial amount of $
to get Steve Hinton to test fly it. When I asked about Lefty Gardner and/or
his son flying it, the answer was that the insurance company had issues with
Lefty's age and with his son's time in type... Oh well....

In any case, the rest of the story was that since it is so valuable (and
expensive to insure and operate) they will probably take it to a handful of
airshows in the next year or two, then retire it in flyable condition, but
keep it on the ground.

KB