Leaderboard

Fair enough. I've never had an SI or BasicMed, so I don't have any first-hand experience with this, but I have certainly encountered a lot of ignorance about aviation regulations (medical or otherwise) and there isn't much that would surprise me

Huge difference between making a mistake, which we all do, and flying illegally, with no medical, which I hope none of us do. That's not a mistake, that's intentional. Should they cover someone without a license? If I knowingly let an unlicensed driver drive my car, should my (and maybe your) carrier cover me? Personally I don't think so, but everyone has their own viewpoint.

To reiterate @Shadrach, and others, what do you buy insurance for? To cover YOUR MISTAKES! Do you really want to pay for a policy that is going to deny YOU coverage because YOU broke a rule? Be VERY careful for what you wish for when saying, "You would think" insurers should deny coverage for legally errant pilots. Ask yourself how many accident reports you have read where the pilot was innocent of any and all transgressions.

I’m not sure whether he does instruction in his own plane, but @KLudwick is a Mooney owner and experienced CFI in Kansas City

The Story: I bought an Ovation last October that needed some attention. My son and I are going to travel in it and he is building time for a flying career. It had a new and very nice glass panel in it but everything else was well used. The airplane flew about 35 hours in the last 5 years. The paint was very oxidized, carpet old and dirty worn through and the seats looked like a frat house couch. Both wings had fuel leaks. It had been well maintained but it was tired when i bought it. I used the Winter months from then until now to refurbish the airplane. I tackled a bit more than i wanted to but my thinking was to fix everything now and fly it versus fly-it-and-fix-it etc….. So, this is what we did: Firewall forward is all new. Every line, hose and connector. Factory new IO-550. New engine isolators. Stripped and painted the engine baffles. Prop Governor Overhaul Prop Overhaul to include new internals. Compete external light conversion to Whelen (WATT) LED’s. New wingtip and taxi/ landing light lenses. New tires and tubes. New batteries (2) New O2 bottle and fill. Polished the spinner and took the dents out. 18 hours with a buffer and ceramic wax to bring the paint back to life. Complete fuel tank seal scheduled for this year. New Interior. (I started with the just carpet but I had to take the seat out to take out the carpet………and one thing led to another and i just took everything out). I also removed most of the old adhesive, cleaned every inch of the inside and added insulation and sound proofing to the interior. FIRST FLIGHT: Accomplished the first flight and first two hours of engine break-in yesterday. The new engine and prop are powerful and smooth. Everything else mostly worked as advertised. After the first hour I landed. We took the cowlings off to inspect. No leaks. We adjusted the prop governor for full take-off thrust and the gear warning horn on the throttle cable. We flew another hour and I got two more landings in since it had been awhile in GA for me. I would have added 4 more hours to the break-in except i was limited to lower altitudes and high power settings for the break-in and it was VERY windy. TAS was 176-178 on 24/24 at 3500” so I am guessing 180-185 higher. It was a rough ride. I have a fuel pump that needs overhauled so that is going out. I also have a small box in the avionics bay that controls glareshield and panel lighting that needs overhauled. Maybe one EGT probe as well. Otherwise, for the amount of work we did on the airplane……everything went well.

That is not how insurance works in almost any area of life. Insurance companies do not deny claims based on bad behavior. The deny claims based on policy exclusions. If you get hit and are permanently injured by a drunk driver, the drunk driver's insurance is still liable for your damages even though he knowingly engaged in risky and illegal behavior. If he misses you all together but destroy his own car, insurance still replaces his car (if he has full coverage). Insurance covers negligence and poor judgement as well as bad luck. The system won't really work any other way. Such a system would require that every single claim be adjudicated by an independent third party.

Sadly a big understatement. All should review the pilot's log book in the docket. It highlights IMO a callous disregard for maintaining and logging instrument currency requirements. I counted 10 log book pages for the last 10 years, 1 per year, rarely logging individual flights but almost entirely just summary entries. Only logging actual instrument time in summary entries involving many hours without naming approaches, departures, holding etc. Notes may indicate IFR work, such as ILS's RNAV's but never logged actual approaches by name nor logged a single practice instrument approach under the hood in the 10 years I saw; except logging simulated instrument during a flight review by instructor. No IPC endorsements in the back either. Can only imagine what an Inspector would conclude when the pilot was last "legal" to file an IFR flight plan. I seriously doubt the medical status had anything to do with his accident, the reports finding was Spatial Disorientation. Why do smart people keep reminding us that IMC flying, especially low IMC, should only be flown by instrument "proficient" pilots? His wife said, that he had no appointments, meetings, or compelling reason to return home on the day of the accident. At the time of departure they cited a 300 ceiling with 4 mi vis.

My policy has no such exclusions and I am sure that is the norm. Just possibly if they can show the pilot misrepresented their status on their application for coverage just maybe they would pursue that, but that's not the typical and they don't typically deny coverage because a pilots flight review or medical has lapsed during the policy period. But lying about it might be different. But the NTSB report isn't saying the pilot misrepresented their basic med status but that his previous heart condition disqualified him for a Basic Med.

I would use a piece of closet rod and a vice to make the bend. Clamp one end with the closet rod. Then use a rubber mallet to help you bend it. If the closet rod is the wrong size then wood dowel. Go to NAPA and get some of the little springy things, drill a hole and insert. Then go to fabric store and buy some foam filling, some leather of your color and some contact cement (not the water based, the good smelly stuff) Cut and glue. Pilots can do interior stuff under Preventive Maintenance. Make it look better than factory and nobody will care. If you want to redo all the lower panels in leather. leatherhidestore.com Buy a couple of hides. There is different weights of leather hides.

Prayers for the lost airman… -a-