| On 7/14/2004 05:34, jim breeyear wrote: | | > The more I read about this the more confused I get. | > | > The way I see this is ; if your homeowners takes care of the bills then | > you dont need AMA.
In theory that's true. But in practice, if the field you wish to fly at is run by an AMA club, you'll probably need AMA to fly there, period. | Have you checked your home owner's policy limits? Are you sure that | no accident will ever push beyond those limits?
Have you checked your AMA policy limits? Are you sure that no accident will ever push beyond those limits?
You will never find an insurance policy that has limits so high that nothing could possibly exceed them. Even a trillion dollar policy could be exceeded by certain really serious (and unlikely) accidents.
Liability insurance is generally (to the accountant, anyways) not about responsibility or `doing the right thing' -- it's about protecting your assets, or covering your ass. That's why clubs require AMA insurance -- it's a CYA thing.
Well, that and the AMA requires it, and the AMA requires it (and doesn't accept any other form of insurance) mostly to keep their membership up. The sooner people realize that the `AMA insurance required' thing's main purpose is to maximize the AMA's membership (and therefore financial and political power), the sooner they can get past it -- they're not going to change it. It's been too successful for the AMA.
And as for the $2.5 million dollars of AMA insurance vs. your homeonwer's $350k or so insurance, what about your auto insurance? Most people don't even have over $100k of auto insurance (Texas requires, what, $20k?), yet which is more likely to cause $100k of damage/liability -- your car or your R/C plane?
(Of course, the answer is `your car, of course' -- which is why it's insurance is so much more expensive, even for the low limit. And of course, everybody drives, so getting hurt in a car accident doesn't make people `see dollar signs' quite the way getting hurt by a R/C plane does.)
Now, some people do get lots of insurance not to protect their assets, but out of a sense of responsibility. And if you're one of these people, that's nice of you. But do be aware that you're in the minority. And if $2.5 million dollars of R/C insurance makes you like a responsible person, that's good, but how much car insurance do you have?