Matt, your desertation about insurance and its direction toward autos, while interesting, was slightly off mark. The one and only reason for insurance, regardless, is simply to avoid R I S K!! To put it another way, financial ruin. The risk of one's own loss. The reason it is required for autos is to insure the responsiible party, in the event of accident, is financially able to compensate for damages and injuries they caused. At the same time your mortgage holder for either your auto, boat or home requires you to provide insurance to protect their linterest in the event of a cotastrophe or loss. The sole reason insurance is required in model airplanes is to avoid the risk of injury you might cause and be unable to respond to the damages. Since individuals are unable to reasonably purchase such insurance on their own, AMA provides that service, in addition to the many other services. In short the one and only reason for any type of insurance regardless is to compinsate loss thus avoiding the potential of financial ruin. From what I read here there are those who really could care less if they cause injury to others and more than likely would be financially unable to compensate for the damages they cause. Perhaps it is that attitude that causes government and to a certaain extent AMA, to require insurance. It is unfortunate there are those who refuse to accept responsibility for their actions thus requiring government or AMA to force the issue. But government force is an issue for another time.