The college kids I work with ask about insurance for their flying.
Unless one is a trust fund baby, there is no reason for them to
carry insurance.


I find that position morally reprehensable.

Jose

I'm very interested in your reasoning, and I'd appreciate it if you
would expand on your thoughts. Very, very few college kids and other
young pilots can afford insurance of any sort. Is it your position
that they should be prohibited from flying unless they carry
insurance? If so, what would you consider to be adequate insurance
for them to carry to protect their potential victims?


Anybody engaging in an activity which is reasonably capable of causing serious
harm (define this any way you like, but the existance of an insurance market is
indicative) owes it to the public to minimize this potential so much as
possible. This is one of the reasons we attempt to fly safely, especially with
passengers in the plane. Our passengers have entrusted their lives to us, and
it is incumbant upon us to take this trust seriously. The public below us is
entitled to the same level of trust. Flying aerobatics above Manhattan, even
if we are a pretty good pilot, would be an example of not taking this trust
seriously.

Part of this involves mitigating harm should it occur. Insurance money can fix
a broken leg, a busted living room, and pay for other forms of harm that may
come to a victim. True, it can never bring back a loved one, but it is not for
us to decide what would be appropriate for a victim.

College kids and other young pilots probably don't own an airplane. They
probably rent at the FBO or the college flying club. They should carry renters
insurance at the highest limit. It costs several hundred a year - the
equivalent of four or five hours of flying. Fotr those that do own an
airplane, insurance is just part of the cost of flying, and protecting the
nonflying public from some of the effects of the harm that might come their
way, should the worst happen.

To think of insurance as just a way to protect your own assets, victims be
damned, is very bad karma.

Jose



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