{"id":20079,"date":"2021-11-22T22:30:35","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T22:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=20079"},"modified":"2021-11-22T22:30:38","modified_gmt":"2021-11-22T22:30:38","slug":"aopa-survey-reports-older-pilots-experience-negative-treatment-from-insurance-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/aopa-survey-reports-older-pilots-experience-negative-treatment-from-insurance-companies\/%20","title":{"rendered":"AOPA Survey Reports Older Pilots Experience Negative Treatment from Insurance Companies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association recently conducted\na survey of pilots and aircraft owners across the country, confirming what the\nAssociation has been hearing from many members for several years: older pilots\nwho are just as safe, current, and proficient as any others continue to find\ntheir insurance policies unceremoniously dropped or canceled, or much more\nexpensive\u2014just for being a day older than 70. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The survey, sent to more than 30,000 pilots and aircraft\nowners, uncovered some striking findings. While it\u2019s intuitive that older\npilots would have more total hours over their aviation careers than younger\nones, they are also staying proficient and safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Pilots older than 70 have flown an average of\nnearly 70 hours in the past year (compared to a recent survey of AOPA members\nthat found more than half of pilots were flying less than 50 hours).<\/li><li>Respondents who are 70 or older were no more\nlikely to have been involved in an accident in the past five years than younger\npilots.<\/li><li>More than 75 percent of the surveyed pilots over\n70 have an instrument rating, compared to 66 percent under 70.<\/li><li>More than 50 percent of the surveyed pilots over\n70 have an airline transport pilot or commercial certificate, compared to 40\npercent under 70.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>While insurance premiums have continued to rise and older pilots are finding it more challenging to stay covered or get a policy, the general aviation industry just experienced its safest year ever, marking a 29-percent year-over-year improvement in the accident rate. Medical incapacitation continues to be among the rarest of accident causes. Older pilots are engaged and actively working to stay proficient; those age 55 and older comprise more than 40 percent of the total viewership of AOPA <a href=\"https:\/\/aopa.org\/training-and-safety\/air-safety-institute\">Air Safety Institute<\/a> YouTube safety videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AOPA leadership continues to hear stories of disappointment\nand confusion from aviators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have looked at this issue from many sides, including a\nreview of accident and incident data, and for some reason, carriers are not\nrenewing policies or are quoting exorbitant premiums, even for pilots with\nimpeccable safety and health records,\u201d said AOPA President Mark Baker.&nbsp; \u201cThese decisions are being made solely based\non some arbitrary age, which doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Baker and other AOPA leaders continue to remind carriers\nthat age has little to do with proficiency and safety.&nbsp; \u201cI understand insurance companies need to run\na business and the industry is trying to recover recent losses, but we need to\nget this market in the right place,\u201d said Baker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On a more welcome note, within the last year, AOPA\u2019s strategic insurance partner, AssuredPartners Aerospace, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aopa.org\/news-and-media\/all-news\/2020\/december\/08\/insurer-may-offer-relief-for-older-pilots\">announced<\/a> that it had teamed with an aviation insurer to explore options for pilots up to age 79.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile this has helped some older pilots navigate the\ncurrent insurance market, more work remains,&#8221; said AssuredPartners\nAerospace CEO Bill Behan. &#8220;We are actively working with the industry to\nbring additional solutions that foster a stable market and anticipate being able\nto promote new insurance carriers and options in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, AOPA\u2019s team continues to work with state\nofficials and others to ensure consumer protection rules are followed and\nexplore how the industry can help prevent the seemingly continuous peaks and\nvalleys of the market. Coverage decisions should be based on facts such as\nexperience, and accident and incident claims\u2014not a subjective factor like age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the meantime, mature pilots are reminded that they should\nnot let a current policy lapse when shopping around\u2013and, in fact, be very\nmindful when considering changing carriers, as a policy with a new insurance\ncompany could be harder to obtain. Baker also reminds pilots that the best way\nto remain safe and avoid claims is to stay in the sky and continue a pattern of\ntraining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf we want to look at the best way for all of us to stay\nproficient and sharp, and help keep claims down, we need to simply keep flying.\nWe\u2019re better pilots\u2013and our aircraft stay safer\u2013when we continue to enjoy this\npassion for the freedom to fly,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association recently conducted a survey of pilots and aircraft owners across the country, confirming what the Association has been hearing from many members for several years: older pilots who are just as safe, current, and proficient as any others continue to find their insurance policies unceremoniously dropped or canceled, or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20080,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20079\/revisions\/20080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}