Insurance

[deiterich]

I turned 86 this year. I still have valid Basic Med and a current BFR and by FAA standards I am qualified to fly. My EAA/Falcon insurance policy expired November 2023, which I had for 21 years and no claims. Since I was turning 86 in 2024, Falcon would not renew my policy to let me fly solo. They wanted me to have another pilot onboard to allow me to fly. The EAA, with all its influence, should press the insurance companies to insure any FAA qualified pilot.

[rwanttaja]

Was it a refusal to provide hull insurance, or liability as well.

You have to understand that insurance companies are just laying bets based on statistics. Their statistics show that they have increasing chances of losing their bet as pilots age past a certain point, so at some point they take their money and cash out.

They're not saying you CAN'T fly, or SHOULDN'T fly, they're just unwilling to bet their money on you anymore. That's how statistics work.

I ran an analysis earlier this year, looking at the rate of pilot error accidents vs. the pilot's ages. In fact, the rate of accidents that involved the pilot's judgment decreased with age. However, the rate of accidents due to failures of the stick-and-rudder skills (bouncing landings, overshoots, etc.) rose past age 80.

This will all be included in an article in the September issue of KITPLANES magazine. Here's an excerpt:

These are statistics that predict the results for thousands of pilots. It doesn’t mean that you are about to undershoot your landings or stall out on takeoff. It means that some percentage of pilots exhibit problems at higher ages. Nothing says that you fall into that percentage. You may well have better than average cognitive function that precludes these kinds of problems—at least for now. Equally, though, there are some pilots who exhibit issues earlier than others.

Ron Wanttaja

[deiterich]

Recently, I only had liability only. Up until a couple of years ago, I had not-in-motion too. Never had hull coverage. I never collected a penny of insurance and being with them for over 20 years.

Chuck Deiterich