C-PLAN Insurance for Canadians

September 2015 - What insurance do you need and how much? Who can fly your aircraft? Can you fly someone else’s aircraft? These are among the most popular questions for the C-PLAN Insurance Program staff at Nacora Insurance Brokers Ltd. in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Here are the answers to the most often asked questions. You can reach C-PLAN at eaainsurance@nacora.com or toll-free at 1-855-736-3407.

Hull insurance covers you for physical damage to your aircraft. You can purchase all risks flight and ground, ground hull only (not in motion), or none.

The agreed value on your policy comes from you. How much will it take to replace your aircraft with another one of similar year, make, model, and condition? You can include tax in this value.

Liability is bodily injury (including passengers) or property damage you can be held accountable for. Most private aircraft in Canada require $1 million million third party and $100,000 per passenger. There are exceptions for very light aircraft and heavier aircraft.

A $1 million combined single liability limit covers you for $1 million for third party, $1 million per passenger, but up to a total of $1 million. This may be preferable as you do not have the $100,000 passenger sublimit. Depending on where and how you fly, you may consider a passenger’s life worth significantly more than the farmer’s field you are forced to land in.

Those who purchase higher than a $1 million limit are those who want to, qualify for, or have passengers of high financial worth.

You can fly any other aircraft with the same passenger seating capacity and configuration as your aircraft or less. Your liability limit carries with you. If you carry all risks flight and ground hull insurance, you are covered up to $100,000 on the aircraft you do not own.

You can approve any other pilot who has 250 hours total flying time, 15 hours on type, and 10 hours in the last 12 months to fly your plane. As this is subjective, if there is any doubt, you can have the other pilot named on your policy.

Any bodily injury or property damage caused by your aircraft is covered by the aircraft liability. Any bodily injury or property damage you cause is covered under premises liability. This can extend to a hangar you own if it is in the same name that is on your aircraft policy. If it is in a different name but the aircraft and hangar have the same ownership, you can add the other name to your policy.

Additional insureds to your policy are not charged for in most cases.

Forced landing is a new coverage. It does not limit your coverage but increases it. If you are forced to land on a road or in a field and are able to have your aircraft disassembled, relocated to an airport, and reassembled to fly, you are covered up to 50 percent of your hull value.