Safety improvements and greater availability of parts and maintenance for light sport aircraft have prompted Avemco Insurance Co. to offer favored rates for several makes and models of special light sport aircraft (S-LSA).
The S-LSAs that qualify for favorable rates are the American Legend Cub; Cub Crafters Sport Cub and Super Sport Cub; Flight Design CTLS, CTSW, and MC; the FPNA Valor A-22; the Jabiru J170 SP, J230 SP, and J250 SP; the Remos G-3 and GX; and the Tecnam P2002, P2004, P92, and P92S.
After a rough start, Avemco is seeing better underwriting results.
“In the beginning, the results weren’t particularly good,” Avemco President James Lauerman said April 23 at Sun ’n Fun in Lakeland, Fla. In the first year of underwriting noncommercial policies for LSAs, Avemco was paying out several dollars of losses for every dollar in claims, Lauerman said. He attributed part of that to “GA pilots grossly underestimat[ing] the differences in the light wing loading of the two-seat airplane.”
Avemco has since tightened the underwriting requirements, requiring policyholders to get five hours of dual instruction plus a flight review, to “put some accountability into the program,” he said.
Lauerman also cited a “maturing” LSA industry with greater availability of parts and qualified maintenance shops.
Now, in the third year, “we’re doing a little better than break even,” he said. He assured pilots that Avemco plans to remain in the LSA sector. “We continue to monitor results very carefully. You don’t jump in wild and crazy” and then withdraw immediately, he said, noting that Avemco now has several hundred policy years of experience upon which to draw, and is beginning to see some trends.
“We’re more optimistic today than at any point that we will be the major player in the light sport industry,” he said.
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