Getting up to speed for flying in the USA

Well the first mistake they made is calling it AeroPS…

Snoopy wrote:

Openairplane seems nice. I’ll try it. Universal checkout and you can rent the same type of plane anywhere. Would something like this work in Europe? Lots of inefficiency in GA around here too..

AeroPS tried that some time ago but wasn’t too successful with it…

https://www.ideenwettbewerb.info/e-ship-stories/uebersicht/profile-e-ship-stories/aero-ps/

Capitaine wrote:

We went to the local hospital a long time ago and asked about this, and essentially they won’t let you in without insurance or a credit card. They weren’t joking.

I’ve read that in case of an emergency, a Reagan-era law forces them to take you. I imagine they can kick you out as soon as you are stable enough to survive without gross risk outside, though.

On the subject of insurance, well… I still have memories of a Friday late afternoon my mother in a corridor of the hospital screaming in pain with multiple (about 30…) elbow area fractures while I was at the reception/admission desk faced with a prepayment requirement that exceeded cumulative credit/payment cards monthly limits. A fax of “we’ll pay” from the insurance company would have done the trick, too. My mother is all year travel-health-insured, the “out of hours” office took my phone call, but I didn’t hear back from them in several days. When we made our reimbursement claim back home, the “normal working hours” workers were shocked, but that was not that useful any more. How my mother actually got the surgery she needed? Well, I rang a few chosen numbers from her contacts, and one of them had connections that convinced the CEO of the hospital to come to the admission desk and tell the staff to extend us credit.

Sure; it will be country dependent.

Also in the UK you can get done for insurance fraud.

Peter wrote:

It’s not a criminal matter; it is a civil matter.

Not everyone entirely agrees with that, Peter. For instance this link says that while most of the time it’s not really fraud, the situation in some states might vary.

After all, the broker is trying to discourage us from admitting we are foreigners in the online form and may or may not pass on information about our true residency to underwriters. For my case, I’ve adequate proof that I’ve told the broker the true situation. But hey, it’s not as if the US is a litigious country! Reports of actual claims are few and far between in public media, perhaps because they don’t happen or maybe for other reasons…

Like I said, you could write a book on this.

To answer the original poster’s questions, I had a similar holiday a few years ago

Getting a piggyback licence wasn’t too hard provided you jumped through ththe right hoops. for example, it is easy to overlook the need for TWO separate forms of approved photo ID when at the FSDO. My experience documented here

I had a great time, as others have said the general atmosphere is relaxed and supportive but you are expected to follow instructions when in controlled airspace. Read here

A VFR flight up or down the Hudson should be on everybody’s bucket list. A short video with ATC here

Thanks for the explanation of travel insurance. I get it now even if I don’t need it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone being in the US or anywhere else without valid health insurance. My (US) health insurance covers worldwide, so pays in Europe, Mexico, Canada etc as long as I’m a US resident on vacation or business travel. I’ve had friends with similar coverage in hospital in Romania (seriously not recommended with a punctured lung), Germany (recovering from Romania) and Switzerland (a separate case, broken limbs). All related to motorcycle accidents, and the possibility definitely exists for me in the future. In the Swiss case, the US insurance company tried to play some games, claiming they didn’t understand the value of CHF or understand an invoice in German… but in the end they paid.

Capitaine wrote:

Avemco and AOPA are the only two I know of that advertise renter’s insurance

I have used Starr Aviation twice in the past, and while they also required a US mailing address, they were perfectly fine with me using the address of the outfit where I rented the plane. They also said it would be no problem to change this address on short notice in case my plans changed.

Avemco and AOPA are the only two I know of that advertise renter’s insurance. I use Avemco and am quite impressed with the service (never made a claim though). They’re ok with payment from a foreign credit card, but I do have a USA address (IIRC I made it clear when first taking out cover that I was a ‘non-resident alien’). Their telephone hold music is a re-broadcast of their local airport’s radio frequency, which I like, and they send a quarterly newsletter by email which is reasonably interesting. In my case it buys peace of mind.

I use Trafford’s for travel insurance: worldwide+USA with winter sports and fixed wing flying or gliding is about £230 including madame Capitaine and petit Capitaine. I really wouldn’t recommend going to the USA without health insurance. We went to the local hospital a long time ago and asked about this, and essentially they won’t let you in without insurance or a credit card. They weren’t joking.