EAA Chapter Insurance Course 101

November 2021 – Here at EAA, we receive phone calls from chapter officers with questions on the EAA Chapter Insurance program. Although not the most exciting program EAA offers to chapters, it is very important and it provides great value.

Let us first outline the plan. The EAA Chapter Insurance Plan provides the chapter, its officers, members, directors, and volunteers with aviation general liability insurance coverage for negligence on the part of a chapter during an approved chapter event or during an event in which the chapter has been approved to participate. This insurance coverage is ground liability only and does not cover the chapter for activities once they have taken off of the ground in their aircraft nor does it protect the chapter’s assets in terms of their hangar, tools, etc. The policy also extends liability coverage to facilities the chapter owns or leases and to non-owned aircraft. There is also medical payments coverage provided.

To the surprise of many EAA chapter officers, we ask chapters to make sure they submit event insurance requests for ALL of their chapter events. This includes monthly meetings, board meetings, and regular chapter gatherings, in addition to “special events” they may organize.

Many chapters ask why they have to submit an insurance request for their regular chapter meetings. The answer is because when we have on record that an activity, like a meeting, is taking place, it allows us to confidently report incidents to our insurance carriers, if a claim happens. We may have a difficult time substantiating that a meeting was organized by a chapter if we do not have a request for insurance on file and no certificate was issued.

Let’s take a look at an example. Your monthly chapter meeting takes place at your leased hangar, and coffee is served. The coffee pot is accidentally left on, and after the meeting has ended, a fire starts, damaging the leased hangar space. Your EAA Chapter Insurance policy would cover the damage to the leased space.

Let’s take a look at another scenario. In this example, your chapter is hosting a pancake breakfast/fly-in, and during the event a chapter member is responsible for directing arriving pilots on where to park their aircraft. The member inadvertently directs an aircraft right into a lamppost, damaging the aircraft and the lamppost! The EAA Chapter Insurance policy will cover both.

Having available liability insurance is good news. Extending that insurance to an unlimited number of approved events at no additional cost is even better news! So, our message to you is simple, please be sure to utilize the EAA Chapter Insurance program to its fullest by completing the insurance request forms for all of your chapter events. Go to EAA.org/ChapterInsurance to complete the form, and, as we like to say, request now and request often!