RE: INSURANCE WOES
Matt,
Let me tell you what I have for a policy... I have an HO-3 policy with an HO-15 rider which gives me "all risk" coverage for my contents and Yes, if I dumb thumb a 15,000 jet into the ground my experience tells me that the insurance company will have to pay for the loss. They may not like it at all but there are NO exclusions in the policy for that type of loss. Before you go ask your local agents about these scenarios let me also explain that 95% of the agency force in this country do not know a great deal about individual policies or coverage, their job is to sell and service the policies they sell. I know this because I was one and deal with them daily. They represent a variety of companies and different policies. My current position requires that I am able to quote chapter and verse for the policies I deal with. So if you ask your agent don't be surprised if you get an adverse answer initially, if so have him check with your company and make sure they research it. As I said in a previous post a guy in the North East had a jet blow up in midair due to a fuel leak, I guess, and I was speaking to the adjuster who handled the claim and wrote the check for the insured. They weren't happy about it but could not exclude it. The exact amount of the check was well over 10,000. The cause of loss was "explosion" which is covered under all homeowners policies I am aware of. As I remember there were a number of witnesses to this event so they had plenty of feedback that the loss was an explosion.
What I am telling you is do the research and be persistent in making sure you know what the policy says. I deal with policies written by ISO. There are companies who do write "manuscript" forms and these are basically "write your own" forms. They are written differently but usually mirror the national ISO and ASI forms fairly well. ISO does have a new form out which I haven't reviewed, their (2000 series). I personally have not seen a policy that excludes models but there are always new forms coming out. The normal exclusion that companies try to use is the "Aircraft" exclusion. When research is done it is found that this applies only to "those that have the ability to carry people".
If anyone has any questions please PM me and I will try to help in any way I can.
PS: I said earlier some companies use their own forms and what might be in those is anyones guess. It would be possible to write in an exclusion for RC planes as long as the states that the carrier writes in approve the forms so there maybe some regional carriers or certain states that allow such an exclusion.
If nothing else check your policies and have a handle on what kind of coverage you have before you have a claim. That goes for all of your policies and all type of claims not just RC planes.