OWNING THE RARE ONES: INSURANCE MATTERS
One of my favorite things to do at AirVenture is walk the Vintage and Warbird parking areas—the ultimate flying museum of old airplanes. This year I noticed there were plenty of interesting and rare classics and warbirds for sale. The beautiful Dornier 28 pictured below was one of many that caught my eye. That got me thinking about the realities of the typical buyer bringing one of these birds back to the hangar to call their own. In a market where aging owners struggle with insuring mainstream twins and taildraggers, imagine sourcing affordable insurance for a rare twin-engine taildragger?
A T-6 owner told me his airplane was the third (and last) warbird he would own because financially and logistically, it just didn’t make sense any more. The mechanic who worked on his planes for years had recently died and he was struggling to find someone local with the same expertise and flexibility to wrench it. He said there are plenty of qualified shops and mechanics who can work on a T-6, but he wasn’t willing to fly the airplane 100-plus miles away for it. But the real issue for him was, unsurprisingly, insurance. He said his insurer was becoming more demanding as he got older, and wondered how long they would cover him. I didn’t ask, but I suspect this lucky guy was in his late 70s.
I asked my go-to for all things aircraft insurance, Scott “Sky” Smith, about the realities of insuring a warbird or rare classic in the current market. His Iowa-based aircraft insurance agency (www.skysmith.com) specializes in a wide variety of machines, including experimentals, warbirds and customs. He said a big issue is the availability of parts and serviceability—which is always a concern with aircraft insurance. But now another problem is getting the limits you want. It’s similar to what’s going on with turboprops and jets. Just because you can finally afford to write the big checks to buy and maintain one of these aircraft doesn’t mean an underwriter will be willing to cover its higher hull value. It’s a small market. “You have the lower-budget warbirds like the T-28, T-6, L-39, Yaks and even military Skymaster models that can get you into the world of warbird ownership at a manageable purchase price, but the number of underwriters who want those is still limited,” Smith told me. Another big issue is sourcing the training to meet the insurance demands. Smith told me of a $900,000 unique warbird a client owned for a few years, but the owner could no longer meet the underwriter’s stringent training requirements and ultimately sold the plane.
Smith reiterated that few underwriters will insure “senior” (aged 70 and older) pilots as they transition to most warbirds—and these are the folks who might be skilled to fly the aircraft. The liability limits are typically low, the number of underwriters that want to write warbird and rare classic policies is low and the training requirements are exceptionally high. “Throw in a plan for flying a Reno Air Race or for-hire airshow and the situation is even worse,” Smith told me.
Bottom line? Before even thinking about stepping into the world of warbirds and classics, have a real conversation with your insurer. —Larry Anglisano