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Drive and fly my/your FD


Gmoore7

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Hello all,

 

Has anyone considered letting another Flight Design owner/pilot use your airplane while he or she is on vacation in your area?

I have thought this often when I was traveling to a different area.  Thinking it sure would be nice to see this from the air for a couple of hours.

 

My insurance policy covers any pilot that has a minimum 500 hours with 20 in the same type with no additional charge.

 

In my case if someone came here and wanted to see the Gulf Coast I would either take them for a tour or let them have the plane for a couple of hours. We probably would only see a few additional hours a year on the plane.

 

Of course we can not charge for this, but topping off the fuel would be nice.

 

What do you think?????

 

Gary 

 

 

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Personal thoughts:

 

If you are going to borrow someone's plane, and you are worried about scuffing it, take pictures first.

 

If you are loaning your plane to someone, there's a couple things you should ask yourself:

-Do you know them well enough to trust that they will make a good effort to take care of it?

-If they damage it, do you know if they will step up to help fix it? Or, will insurance cover damage?

 

I don't mind people flying my planes, that's why it's leased to the flying club. When someone damages the plane, I'm disappointed, but I don't get mad unless it was neglect, or if they don't want to help fix it. We've kicked people out for not taking responsibility.

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It's just stuff.

 

I've been loaned P210's and Cirrus' in the past for the cost of gas. Never an issue.

 

My Buell and my KTM both have minor "battle scars" where friends have dropped them.

 

Meh. Like I said, it's just stuff and they have more "character" now.

 

No one's specifically asked to borrow my Sky Arrow. My decision, if asked, would depend on a lot of things. But I would not say "no" out of hand.

 

Especially if they had something cool I wanted to fly!

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I'm sure there would not be a problem, incident, damage with something I borrowed. It's just that I would feel really badly for a really long time if I even put a minor scratch on someones car, plane, etc.

 

A couple of years ago we visited out of state friends we hadn't seen in a while. He had a new 'Vette I was looking forward to just getting a ride in. When we arrived his wife handed me the keys, said her husband was called away and might not be back while we were visiting but he wanted me to go have fun. Well, I enjoyed it but was very, very gentle with it.

 

He did get home before we left and when he found out about my abundance of caution he tossed me the keys and said lets go have some fun. I had much more fun with him in the car encouraging me to push it a little. All within the law of course. :)

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A friend of mine let me fly his Nimbus 3 open-class sailplane some years back. It was brand new at the time and one of the first in the country.

Later I learned that he did not have insurance. That plane was worth more than my house. What could I do if I smashed it? Nothing. I would have to walk away from it and our friendship... and feel bad about it for the rest of my life.

Before you borrow something, make sure there is some way of making the owner whole if things go bad. Otherwise, it's not worth the risk.

Mike Koerner

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How bad would you feel if you landed your friends airplane gear up? I still think the best policy is don't borrow stuff and don't loan stuff.

Not everyone thinks this way though. It really depends on a lot of things. For me, i love my lityle ct to death and I face the very real fact that she is one mistake away from being destroyed. But, I also enjoy watching her fly, and I love the look on people's faces when they get the chance to play with her. So I mitigate my risk by entrusting my plane to people who have flown with CFIs that I personally trust and signed them off.

 

There's a few people on this forum that I would allow to borrow my plane, and I would have no problem, because of the way they conduct themselves on here and have a general good attitude and experience.

 

I've accepted risks long ago. This is how it is with a lot of things I have. The dynamics of a trusting friendship is nice to have. I still have strict requirements for things I loan and borrow for risk management, but insurance helps, too ;).

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Renting your airplane is a totally different situation.  It's a business proposition where you have assessed the risk and decided it's worth the risk.  Many people know they are going to rent their airplane before they even purchase it.

 

Not exactly. I've loaned my mooney to people I trust. The big point is insurance, so that I can recover my position if something happens, and it means a LOT less strain between me and another person if something did happen. If they aren't covered by insurance, then it's a no-go, I will not loan my aircraft.

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I loaned my Cessna 150 back in the early 80's to a friend. Later that day it came back to the airport on the hook of a jet ranger, total loss. Did not know he had renter and borrower insurance. They paid me more than I had paid with 600 hours of flying since purchased. We were and are still friends. If it had not worked out that way it is still just money.

 

By the way Duane where is that CTLSi at anyway. Loss of a toy is just an opportunity to get a new toy. Played right friends are forever.

 

Happy Holidays

 

Farmer

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Farmer,

 

Your CTLSi is resting comfortably in my hangar in Tucson while Roger is putting the sport upgrade into it, but I think you knew that.

 

I think that loaning an airplane to someone depends on so many factors that it can't readily be defined by what is acceptable and what is not.

 

If the parties and plane are properly insured, then it is only a matter of inconvenience if something goes wrong. Unless its a priceless antique of course, but then that wouldn't be loaned out anyhow.

 

I know I appreciated Copper City Aviation having the trust in me to take their CTLS to Alaska for a month.  Logistically, a ding up there could turn into an expensive and lengthy delay. 

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