#168 Helicopter CFI and student renter insurance Day 168 Coffee With Kenny

Hey, there we go. Looks like she's working. Gonna try something different. We'll see if this comes out for day 168, coffee with Kenny. Last winter, when I was trying to do them live from home from my phone, the recordings came out kind of wacky. So we'll give this a try, see how it comes out. Hopefully it comes out good. If not, I'll reshoot it and upload it. So live day 168, coffee with Kenny. Still having a blast today. I want to answer a question from. I believe it was terrell Runner on YouTube and he made a really nice comment or she made a nice comment yesterday on yesterday's video. And it was, hey, you know, thanks for the videos. You're answering a lot of questions that we don't really get out there for people new in the industry, which I appreciate that. Right. I love doing this. It's fun. I feel like it can be, you know, kind of impartial because I am creator of helicopter airline ground school that helps people with the knowledge to get through the training. So I don't really compete with flight schools because that's not what I do. I do flight training, but I do that for helicopter land ground school members. And that's just on a very limited basis. So not really competing with anybody out there. And a lot of flight schools are great and honest and give you all kinds of great information, then sometimes maybe not so much. So Trail runners question was, hey, Kenny, how about touching on the subject of CFI insurance and student renter insurance? Or, you know, just once you have your private and you're wanting to rent. So what I'm going to say about that is the first flight school I worked at that was really busy, or one of the first, not the very first, but probably the busiest flight school I ever worked at that had a lot of instructors and students implemented a policy with people that were already flying. And I know that a lot of them really got frustrated and they implemented a renters agreement for anybody flying the helicopter, both students and renters. And I think that company wanted, like, they wanted customers, students or renters to sign a contract that they were responsible for, like $15,000 in damage if anything happens. And I just remember, I don't know how that came out in the end because I just worked there as an instructor, but I know a lot of students really battled that and had a problem with it. And I don't know how that really played out, how that come out in the end. So I know that, you know, across the board you're going to run into lots of different policies at flight school. So I can't make a blanket statement for everyone. Right. If a school has something they want you to sign, I guess the best thing is to have an attorney look at it. Right now, not everybody has an attorney. Not everybody can afford an attorney, but that's going to be the best advice, right? And you're going to have to look at those renter policies and, you know, decide if it's right for you or not, if it's something you want to sign. I know that, for example, now I've been with the same insurance company for the helicopters that I fly, and for years we don't have a student renter policy, meaning we don't hold you responsible for damages. Okay, now that's just one particular policy. And I feel like I have, you know, one of the best insurance men in the industry. He's been doing it for 35 years, insures more helicopters than anybody in the country. And I always have felt like it's a really great policy. And I recently discussed with him along this lines. I was using a helicopter owned by another company, and even though it was owned by someone else, we insured it under helicopter land ground school. Right? So the policy was written for helicopter online ground school, and they named the actual owner of the aircraft, like additional insured. And you know, my insurance guys, like, looking in the eyes of the insurance company, you know, technically you don't own the aircraft, but as far as they concerned, you do. You're in control of it. You decide who's going to fly, who's not, so on so forth. And the guys that own the helicopter, they're like, hey, we want you to sign this agreement that you're responsible for $5,000 in damages, anybody from you or your flight school. And so I called my insurance guy and said, hey, these guys want me to add an additional policy? And he's like, well, there really isn't anything additional for you to get. You're covered on your policy. You're 100% covered. Now something happens, these guys can come back. You know, either you sign the agreement or not. If you want to work with them and they make you sign it, you got to sign it. And his. He was like, well, why don't you just. There's no additional insurance for you to get. Put five grand away for what if. Well, that, that deal didn't last very long anyway, so I'm not even involved in that anymore. Which is a good thing because the aircraft that we fly we're covered. We don't make students sign anything. But with the number of insurance policies and flight schools, you're going to run into so many different things at so many flight schools, you're just going to have to look at any one of those things that someone wants you to sign. You're going to have to look at it. And then there is rental policies out there that you as a renter or a student can get and can look into. I personally never purchased anything like that when I was a student. You certainly can. I hear they're kind of pricey. But you would have to research that yourself again. I've never done it. I'm going to be put in a disclaimer here. I've always kind of run as a. Hate to say this. When you're broke, you run like a renegade outlaw a lot of times, right? And when you're going through, going through flight school and you're trying to get all your ratings, most likely you probably are broke. So any one individual is going to have to figure out whether an additional policy is something you can afford now for like the CFI insurance. I know quite a few guys and or girls that have purchased additional CFI policies so that as an instructor, you're covered beyond whatever your flight school does for you. I think AOPA has something like that, and I can't really say anything negative or positive about it. I don't think it's real expensive. I remember the instructor that helped me with my commercial. I know he purchased that additional CFI insurance. If I remember right, back then in the early 2000s or late 90s, I think his policy was like 175 bucks a year and it had an attorney that would represent you if you got sued. As a cfi, that is probably a pretty good idea if you can afford it. Again, I've never had a policy like that running renegade outlaw, you know, when I was younger and more broke, you know, at this point in my career, I have an attorney now that's for my life stuff, my corporation. And just so happens, luckily this attorney that I have for all my personal stuff is also an aviation attorney, right. So I feel like I'm covered now. And I've even discussed this at length with my insurance man. I'm like, you know, again, is there anything I need to purchase as cfi? And he's like, kenny, there's really nothing else for you to purchase. You know, you have everything you can have and you're covered unless you do, like what I just mentioned, like that AOPA thing. But I believe that's, you know, that's attorney help. And luckily now at this point in my life, I've been able to get my act together. And luckily I now have an attorney that represents me for my business and my personal stuff. And luckily, hey, he's an aviation guy. So in the event I would get sued in that type of situation, I've got a guy who's already representing me and it's a attorney that I, that I like and trust and seems like really sharp individual. So I feel like I'm covered. So I know that doesn't really answer that question for a lot of you, but again, it goes back to so many things we talk about. You really got to look at what's right for you and policies that somebody wants you to buy to flight school. You got to look at it, read through it very carefully, have some friends or family read it with you if you can afford to go spend, you know, a little bit of money, a hundred bucks, couple hundred bucks, whatever it takes, go have an attorney look at it. You know, insurance is always a good thing, but we can also be insurance poor as well, right? Oh, here comes my neighbors coming in. Get him to wave for the camera. Yeah, make sure you wave because we're live right now on YouTube. Wave as you go by. All right, great neighbors. Many of you seen the video from last, I think it was last Saturday, last Friday or Saturday that I did, I come home and land in the yard and it was awesome. So I have great neighbors. Nobody's complaining about landing in the yard. It was awesome. So I'll wrap this up. I'm gonna check the recording. I know some people have made some comments, but out here I can't read what the comments came up. Hopefully it was good. If this sucks and the audio sucks, I'll redo it and re upload it in a little bit. So make sure you like and subscribe to our channel. And when you subscribe, click that little bell below because that will give you notifications then of our daily video. At this point in time, life's crazy and it's hard for me to have them come out exactly the same time every day. But I am committed to doing them every day. So subscribe and click that bell. That way you get notified. We answer all kinds of questions. Insurance, training, careers, anything and everything under the sun we can think of helicopter wise and a little life motivational stuff too, right? Because we all struggle. We all have things going in our lives and you just have to never give up. And so we try to put a little bit of that too in there. These have been pretty successful because I like to talk about my screw ups. And anybody that goes around acting like their life is just great and they don't have any problems, never have, or they're probably a not very candid, very truthful person because life is tough sometimes, right? So you get up every day and drink another cup of coffee or orange juice or whatever it is you do, and we continue on. All right, I'm gonna wrap it up because I'm anxious to see how this came out. I'll check the comments. If it sucks, I'll do another one. Now if I can remember, I haven't done a live from my phone in a long time. Let's see how I can end this. D. How do I stop it? I don't remember. Peace out.