Insurance

“Life insurance.” These are two words almost guaranteed to glaze the eyes of even the most attentive pilot and cause many others to look for a way — any way — to quickly change the subject to something more stimulating — like wall paint or 8-track tape players. They conjure up, in my mind anyway, […]

When completing an application for life insurance as a pilot, there are several tips you should know that can save you time, money, and frustration. Just as you would put a new airplane through a pre-buy inspection before buying it, insurance companies put you through their underwriting process to determine whether or not to offer […]

I recently returned from Mobile, Ala., where I spent a full week at the Teledyne Continental Motors factory going through TCM’s Aviation Technician Advanced Training Program (ATATP). I attended the course with AVweb Executive Editor Jeb Burnside (who owns a TCM-powered C33A Debonair) and my good friend Chris Wrather (who owns a TCM-powered V35 Bonanza). […]

Maybe it would be easier to just bury our heads in the sand and ignore the coming aviation-gasoline crisis. This is what I believe most of us in aviation are doing. I am referring to the possibility of the demise of both the aviation and auto gasoline that we currently use in our aircraft. The […]

Immediately after Air France’s Concorde crash, graphic photographs and video of the disaster were broadcast to millions of television viewers. So-called industry experts appeared on various networks soon after and speculated about the cause of the crash. One pundit, who has authored a book on aging aircraft, raised the specter of the inherent danger to […]

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer is used as a kind of divining rod to locate expensive parts not far from the object we are trying to hit. ELECTRIC DRILL: Normally used for spinning rivets in their holes until you die of old age, but it also works well for drilling […]

Recently a Beech/Raytheon Baron 58TC crashed in New Jersey, killing four. Although it will be a long time before investigators release their findings on the final causes of the tragedy, early reports said a friend of the Baron’s owner was flying the airplane. Regardless of the cause of the accident, this brings to mind a […]

The key to understanding aviation insurancecosts is the term “loss ratio (LR).” The LR is the ratio of money paid out inclaims, compared to the money taken in through insurance premiums. The loss ratio ingeneral aviation insurance has exceeded 1.1 to as much as 1.25 or more for the lastseveral years. This means that most […]

This was a trip I had been anticipating eagerly allyear. I’d been invited to give a seminar at the CaymanIslands’ International Aviation Week gathering, and would be flying myT310R from its west coast base to Key West Florida, then joining up with The Cayman Caravan to fly over the top of Cubaand into Grand Cayman. […]

Metalfatigue isn’t a subject that usually keeps me awake at night. For most of the 30-odd yearsduring which I’ve been an aircraft owner, I figured it was a subject of interest mainly tometallurgists and aeronautical engineers and other Ph.D. types, not to mere mortalaircraft owners like me. Figure 1 — Under dye penetrant, the fatigue […]