Air Courtage - "LAA insurance"

[Peter Gorman]

Has anyone experience of using Air Courtage?

I gave my details to the elegant French ladies on their stand at last September's rally, now they have sent me an apparently attractive premium proposal.

But the cover and how it is expressed looks very different from a standard UK-type policy. The insured pilot is insured to fly the insured aircraft and any other aircraft noncommercially, within weight etc limits. This might be useful. I am not skilled enough in insurance matters to know where the trip wires and booby traps might be lurking.

Peter

PS Wow there is not a lot happening in this part of the forum!

[Ian Melville]

Peter, I have no experiance of this package, but there has been a couple of articles in LAA Today explaining how it works.

I suspect the LAA would have given the details a thorough going over before they endorsed it. My Visicover renewal is not due yet, but I will be investigating it, as I do have access to several aircraft.

[JimCrawford]

I took out Air Courtage LAA insurance this year mainly because it allowed me to tailor the cover to my needs.
I have a Taylor Mono in long term build (very long term!) effectively in storage in a hangar with my Nipper which is 'engine off' for a Leburg fit. I was able to insure both hulls for ground risks with a discount for self repair for damage. This seems sensible to me as even moderate damage would probably write the aircraft off as uneconomic if professionally repaired, whereas I could do the repair myself with the insurance only covering materials.
Builder's cover also takes care of third party risks in the hangar. If I and/or somebody working on my aircraft accidentally damages a third party aircraft then that risk is covered as is injury to any person helping me.
The full monty as described cost the same as hull only cover on one aircraft that was quoted by my previous insurer.
I think that Air Courtage and the LAA have made a shrewd assessment of the requirements of our corner of aviation and, certainly in my case, have a product which I'm content to buy.
It is early days yet and the forms they supply could certainly do with a proof read by an aviation savvy natural English speaker. It took a few emails back and forth to sort things out but replies were always swift and helpful. In the end I emailed a list of exactly what I wanted and they sorted it out. About the only glitch I encountered was that the first quote was rather higher than I expected and it turned out that the Nipper was being considered as a serviceable aircraft undergoing maintenance and this mandates a level of third party insurance. Once I had assured them that the aircraft had no engine, and for completeness I'd taken a wheel off, then it became an aircraft being rebuilt and the premium plummeted.
I believe that the discount for attendance at LAA safety and engineering courses is a brilliant initiative, although perhaps needing a little fine tuning like the forms.

All in all - a happy customer.

Jim

[Peter Gorman]

Thanks guys. I hope to get the proposal reviewed by someone who knows more about this tricky stuff than I do.

My current broker has given me a good deal and excellent service for circa 20 years so I am cautious about effecting a change ....

Meantime if anyone else has firsthand experience I would be glad to hear ....

[Flying John]

I obtained a quote bith with and without the self repairing option and it was more expensive that Traffords and it didnt have as much cover and it was with a French underwriter. So better the devil you know !!

[Peter Gorman]

The devil you know .... hmmm. Could be right. I need to sit down and go through the proposal line by line and try to spot what booby traps might be lurking in the small print.

[MikeM]

A Devon Strut member who is over 76 has been refused passenger cover for his Tecnam by Air Courtage's underwriters unless the pax is a qualified pilot. Air Courtage acknowledged that this was baseless but could do no more negotiations on his behalf so he's gone elsewhere.