What the RV10 is insured for is another tricky one, as they don’t tend to change hands, so how do you value?
Maybe not by comparing in the UK, or the rest of continental Europe, since there are only a few around… but looking oversees most of the ones sold lately were gone for 300K+.
RVs pricing has followed the trend and gone up by about 30% in the last 2 years, in the US. Prices in EU seem to be lagging behind…
Here, insurance companies have a list of experts who you pay to come and look at the aircraft.
They then write a report and give the insurance company a value. You may think your aircraft is worth more but the insurance company will only insure the figure advised by the expert.
The problem is that some experts have no clue about particular aircraft.
Peter wrote:
Anyway, like I said, I reckon most of GA is under-insured now.
Very likely. My club has increases its insurance amounts twice in the last 3-4 years.
I’m also having a problem with valuing the Bolkow Junior. We bought it for £15,500, fitted 8.33 and Mode S, cartridge oil filter, and oil quickdrain, and had her stripped and repainted. Flap operating problem fixed. Presently insured for £30K, which just covers upgrde expence. Probably not enough for a propstrike?
Any ideas?
@Maoraigh, I don’t think any Bölkow Junior is worth a large sum in the open market, and more generically with any simple plane above some level of improvement and investment you are doing it for yourself, the market value doesn’t respond. On the other hand, if the objective in the event of it being total loss would be to build another one the same, to repeat the process, then the stated value is between you and the insurance company. The market value is no longer directly relevant.
The last example of my aircraft type that’s sold within thousands of miles and on the same register was over decade ago, and it was my plane 
Another one was advertised in the US a year or so ago at a ridiculous price (double what some thought it worth) and it didn’t sell. Flying and aircraft ownership to me is tied into things more important than say $50K: my health and ability to fly, my enjoyment of the airport/aircraft scene, passing the plane on someday after being a good caretaker, and in the meantime ongoing learning experiences both in flight and on the ground. The relatively small amount of money lost if the plane itself were written off is by comparison almost irrelevant to me, and I like it that way.
It’s not replace value, it’s covering “minor” accidents such as a propstrike that pushes up the insurance. Unlike my Asra car, there’s little Info available to either the broker or me for a Bolkow Junior.
For all the talk of premiums skyrocketing, I don’t see it on liability only – just got a new liability policy for the Turbo Commander for $1050/year via Avemco. Pretty economical, I thought. Now, it should be said it’s $1mill smooth, so not a lot of coverage, but still.
I didn’t even ask about hull insurance this time around. I’ll take my chances in these tougher times.
I’m with you @AdamFrisch, ever more convinced to drop hull coverage on any vehicle. I’m just finishing an auto claim, my first in 42 years, and dealing with the insurance company is truly more trouble than it’s worth. Happily the shop doing the work did most of the negotiation in this case but it was ridiculous. Waves of letters from the insurance company intended to coerce the customer to settle, one before the repair shop had even done an estimate, a check for about half the actual cost of repair received (I didn’t deposit it), Chinese non-OEM ‘insurance grade’ repair parts mandated by fine print in the policy, used junkyard ‘reconditioned’ headlight also mandated and so on. That last one was amazing to me. The vehicle insurance business is the bottom of the barrel both in practices and personnel.
In the end we negotiated to the point where only $160 plus the standard deductible will be required to fix the car properly with real parts (with $4200 of damage) but I would much rather have saved the premium for only three years of forty-two and paid the claim out of pocket.
I have no real idea what the claim process for my plane would be like, I’ve never before made a claim there either. I suspect given that it takes a brain to obtain parts for my type that in many circumstances the plane would be totaled, I’d get a payment plus retain the plane. I’d then fix it myself. That might be OK, at least you’d get away from the insurance company relatively quickly.
Chinese non-OEM ‘insurance grade’ repair parts mandated by fine print in the policy, used junkyard ‘reconditioned’ headlight also mandated and so on.
That practice is also widespread in car repairs here, but – this again is country dependent – is not actually legal. In the UK, you are entitled to have the item restored as it was before the incident, and that means using original parts, not fakes etc. But most people don’t know this, and that supports a lot of the repair trade.
Peter wrote:
In the UK, you are entitled to have the item restored as it was before the incident
I think that would be the case in any country that recognises the doctrine of equity, but you may have to sue to achieve it.
