Fortunately most aircraft are insured on an agreed value basis, so if cost of repair is less that that value it can be repaired. The concept of “write-off” as applicable to cars is not quite the same for planes.
At least in Germany, the agreed value must be more or less in line with the Blue Book value.
Aztecs are very cheap, basically engine + avionics with a free airframe. If he wants another Aztec, he will surely find one. One thing always struck me as odd: why are Aztecs purely a UK thing? You never see them over here but there are plenty of them in the UK. I’ve never seen a D-reg Aztec myself.
The concept of “write-off” as applicable to cars is not quite the same for planes.
There isn’t a great deal about aircraft repair in any sense that corresponds to the superficial world of new and used cars. Whether an old Aztec gets parted out depends on the individual aircraft, because the replacement is probably going to be another of the same type and age that may not be as nice. I think that means the equation has to include both buying another used plane and then (significantly) bringing it up to the same level of specification and ‘development’ (i.e. working the bugs out), versus performing what may be a fairly straightforward mechanical and/or structural repair on the existing aircraft. An Aztec with its steel tube fuselage etc would be more straightforward to repair than most twins, and the repair work might not take a lot of time.
The plane may not even be insured for hull damage, insurance isn’t everybody’s choice for risk management.
One thing always struck me as odd: why are Aztecs purely a UK thing? You never see them over here but there are plenty of them in the UK. I’ve never seen a D-reg Aztec myself.
Well, I have seen a few, but yes, they are quite rare around here.
I think the reasons are:
-airway fees (remember, in UK, you can fly quite a lot of IFR and never be on the airways.
-landing fees: in Germany, the two-ton threshold is a big one, also in terms of other costs. In the UK, most small airfields only differentiate between “singles” and “twins” (thus, an Aztec will cost the same to land as a Tecnam P2006) and at the bigger airports, fees are often the same for anything between 1.5 and 2.5 tons (or only marginally different between 1999kg and 2.3 tons).
-possibly noise: don’t know if it is possible to get the erhöhter Lärmschutz for the Aztecs, whereas a lot of Senecas (which are rather numerous in Germany) can get it
When I was in Arizona in 2011, I took the occasion, flew it and really enjoyed it 
achimha wrote:
I’ve never seen a D-reg Aztec myself.
http://www.planecheck.com?ent=da&id=7339
I remember quite a few of them around here, also some HB-Reg ones. Currently there are 2 on Swiss Register, of which one is not operating to my knowledge but the other one is.
The question in a case like that is always the same one: Do you want another airplane or do you want yours made whole again.
Normally, you know what your airplane can do, you know it’s history, you know the maintenance it has had and you probably have put a lot of money and work in it. If you are forced to forego that and buy another one, you have no idea what is coming at you.
I’ve seen two such cases in recent times, I mentioned one. That Mooney had a sheet metal damage on the wing which also included the fuel tank. The offer of the local company for the repair was over the agreed total value, so the owners decided not to repair but to take the insurance money and give up flying. The airplane subsequently got sold to someone in Czechia, was provisorically repaired, ferried on one tank and then properly repaired and upgraded. I found it for sale on planecheck not too long ago. http://www.planecheck.com?ent=da&id=7339
The other one was a prop strike on a PA28. The owner had insured mostly the value of the engine or so he thought until he found out that the agreed value ended up being way too low to even do a new prop and engine teardown. To what I understood, the insurance, owner and overhauler came to an agreement to do a complete engine overhaul and buy a new prop. The owner was paid out the insurance money and footed the rest of the bill himself.
I find the attitude simply wrong that even small mishaps which are perfectly repairable will immediately mean a total damage today, particularly if “only” engine and props are involved. People should not bee too stingy with their insurance cover. When I did my latest assessment for the cover, I forwarded all equipment and upgrade bills to the insurance plus the current assessment of value by Jimmy Garrison, who has valuation data sheets for all Mooney Models. We agreed on a value which would allow me to either repair up to quite a significant amount or find back and re-equip a similar airframe.
Simply throw away otherwise sound airframes just because it became insurance property due to a too low value is just sad. Particularly as for that money, the owner is very unlikely to find another similar airframe which he can bring to the same standard…
G-LIZZ Aztec accident at EGHE – Statement from Timothy
As most of you are aware, there was an incident involving G-LIZZ, piloted by Timothy whom quite a few of you may know. I’ve been in touch with him and he has kindly provided a statement about what happened. He has done this to hopefully help avoid speculation and as a learning exercise for other pilots. What he gave me is reproduced here in its entirety, with his permission and without comment from me. Please remember our posting guidelines when replying.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Simply throw away otherwise sound airframes just because it became insurance property due to a too low value is just sad. Particularly as for that money, the owner is very unlikely to find another similar airframe which he can bring to the same standard…
Certainly in the US, depending on type, aircraft often get repaired regardless of whether an insurance company ‘totals’ them. One of the more interesting examples locally was the (ahem) European Aerobatic Aircraft that was ‘totaled’ and sold by the insurance company for $75K. It was flown to a new home, repaired by skilled people in about 3 weeks with $5K of materials and was better than new. Then there was a long wait while the FAA screwed around, and the engine was given a field overhaul during that period, but in the end the plane was sold for normal market value. It was a very nice plane, and the sale put a fair bit of money in the repairer/sellers pockets.
All I can say: Thank you Timothy. Hopefully your airplane will be repairable and back in the air soon.
I have never heard of this gentleman before but for this statement he gets all my respect. To err is human but it still needs a lot of courage to publicly admit a stupid mistake (his words!) instead of trying to cover it up and/or look for someone else to blame! Hopefully others will learn from this example – both in avoiding this kind of incident and in being honest regarding ones mistakes.
Urs, do you know what the Scilly Isles are? Have you considered the possible recovery costs?
