Another insurance question

[jwilbur]

I'm a low time pilot (<100 hours). I'm about 2 - maybe 3 years from first flight in my 10. That gives me plenty of time to prepare. I know when it comes to getting insurance for my 10 more time is obviously going to be better. And obviously lots of time in an RV10 now would be best.

In the past month I've logged about 6.5 hours in an RV7A and hope to continue flying it periodically. Will that weigh more favorably to an insurance company than the same time logged in a C172?

What about getting an instrument rating? Would it be better to spend the same money and just fly more VFR hours and get the rating in my own airplane later? In other words, take the money that would have gone to an instructor and pay for 30% more rental time? Does an insurer count the rating for more than say an additional 30 hours of flying?

Thanks,

[Bill.Peyton]

The more time you have the better, there was a thread on the RV10 forum regarding hour requirements. I want to say it was around 200 hours for the -10. So perform a search in that forum and it should come up. IRT the instrument rating, IMHO I believe it should be a requirement of every pilot, but that's just my opinion. The insurance companies obviously agree by the rate differentials that have been reported for the -10. I do realize that there are a large number of pilots who will never use the rating and will only fly on CAVU days. These planes are fast and great travel machines. Having the instrument rating opens up a lot of "marginal" weather days that might not be considered without the experience. Since you need more hours, you could use the money spent boring holes in the sky, to obtain an additional advanced rating.
The other thing you might do is to contact Jenny Estes at Nation Air in St. Louis. Pose your questions to her and proceed accordingly.

[Jerry Fischer]

What Bill says. Nationair will provide the best advice.

[jestes]

Originally Posted by jwilbur

I'm a low time pilot (<100 hours). I'm about 2 - maybe 3 years from first flight in my 10. That gives me plenty of time to prepare. I know when it comes to getting insurance for my 10 more time is obviously going to be better. And obviously lots of time in an RV10 now would be best.

In the past month I've logged about 6.5 hours in an RV7A and hope to continue flying it periodically. Will that weigh more favorably to an insurance company than the same time logged in a C172?

What about getting an instrument rating? Would it be better to spend the same money and just fly more VFR hours and get the rating in my own airplane later? In other words, take the money that would have gone to an instructor and pay for 30% more rental time? Does an insurer count the rating for more than say an additional 30 hours of flying?

Thanks,

Most insurance companies will require you to have 200 to 500 hours of total time depending on the carrier. There are 4 carriers that will insure the RV-10 during the test phase, AIG requires 200 total hours, Global requires 250, Starr requires 500 and QBE requires 500. None of them require you to have an instrument rating but if you do a few of these carriers will give a 5% discount off the liability premium and the hull premium. The insurance companies will want to see your hours be in a more complex/high performance aircraft than the RV-6A. Having the instrument rating may not be as beneficial to you the first year of flying as it will be the 2nd year of flying as the rates will be higher the first year since you have no RV-10 time. The rates go down once you hit the 100 hour mark in the RV-10 and then the IFR rating will help more at that time as well. So you could save the money renting and get your IFR rating in the RV10 after you fly off the hours. For now the best thing for you to do is build up your total time as much as you can so we have at least 2 carriers to go to for quotes once you are ready to fly.

Please feel free to email me at jestes@nationair.com with any other questions you may have.

Regards,

Jenny Estes
NationAir

[gtmule]

If you're going to fly "x" amount between now and your first flight, and it's going to be in rentals, you might as well be working on your Inst Rating, as that'll be much better value than just banging around the pattern. There's not that many dual hours required, so the marginal cost won't be that much different, assuming you can find an adequately rated safety pilot to fly with you.

All else being equal, I assume high-performance time would be better, but the cost delta between renting a warrior/172 and an arrow/182 means there's probably no value there, unless you're doing a cross-country with the whole family.

[BobTurner]

Minimum dual required for the ifr rating is 15 hours, all the rest of the time (another 25, minimum) can be done with a safety pilot (under the hood, vfr).

Also, for budget planning: since you have no -10 time the insurance company will insist on transition training in a -10, probably 5 hours but maybe 10. Unless you have a really good friend who will let you fly his ten for free (and most likely uninsured), you'll need to go to someone with a LODA (waiver). With travel costs, budget a few thousand dollars. Check out Alex D's website.

Edit added: also, you will need a high performance endorsement before you start transition training, so you will need to rent a 182 or similar for a few hours.

[jwilbur]

Originally Posted by jestes

Most insurance companies will require you to have 200 to 500 hours of total time depending on the carrier. There are 4 carriers that will insure the RV-10 during the test phase, AIG requires 200 total hours, Global requires 250, Starr requires 500 and QBE requires 500. None of them require you to have an instrument rating but if you do a few of these carriers will give a 5% discount off the liability premium and the hull premium. The insurance companies will want to see your hours be in a more complex/high performance aircraft than the RV-6A. Having the instrument rating may not be as beneficial to you the first year of flying as it will be the 2nd year of flying as the rates will be higher the first year since you have no RV-10 time. The rates go down once you hit the 100 hour mark in the RV-10 and then the IFR rating will help more at that time as well. So you could save the money renting and get your IFR rating in the RV10 after you fly off the hours. For now the best thing for you to do is build up your total time as much as you can so we have at least 2 carriers to go to for quotes once you are ready to fly.

Please feel free to email me at jestes@nationair.com with any other questions you may have.

Regards,

Jenny Estes
NationAir

Thank you, Jenny. Very helpful. I guess I'll just plan to fly as much as possible in any airplane I can for the next two or three years. ... Not such a bad plan, I think.

Thanks to everyone else, too. I appreciate it.

[bhassel]

It might be more affordable to build hours in a Cessna/Piper and then sell later. All that rental adds up. Considering the number of hours you may need it might be worth considering.

Bob