ORIGINAL: branded
Liability only seems to have become an issue with the advent of multi-thousand dollar airplanes flown by a few.
I disagree. It has been an issue since the advent of the hobby, and IMO it only became a contentious one when people started deciding that they could be as careless, and do as much damage as they like without having to bear the consequences of their negligence.
It's a matter of whether or not you want to share the same risks with your fellow fliers, or you want special dispensation because you fly expensive airplanes. That's the issue.
Nope. There is no special dispensation required. Everyone assumes responsibility for their own mistakes,
with no dispensation.
So you see, you're unfairly exposing these people to unreasonably high out of pocket replacement costs just because you choose to fly expensive airplanes.
Nope.
As already pointed out over, and over, and over again, you can get insurance to ensure that you don't have to deal with high payouts.
If you can't afford thousands of dollars out of your pocket to pay for replacing a model you shoot down, or repairing the car that you shot it down into, or dealing with the medical or other costs that your negligence may cause when the shot-down aircraft hits someone, then you hedge that risk by paying an annual insurance fee. My PUP costs me less than $200 per year for about a half million coverage.
You pay the smaller amount of money for insurance, or you decide not to bother with insurance and instead take the gamble that you will have to personally find the larger amount of money if the worst happens.
Your choice. It's no different than the third-party liability aspect of car insurance.
There is nothing unfair or unreasonable about expecting people to make right, that which
their screw-up broke.
If you expect me to pay for it when you destroy my airplane - can I then rely on you to pay for it when I destroy my own airplane ? Seems fair...
Telling people that they don't have to bear the costs of their screw-ups, just encourages them to not bother being adequately careful. The fear of the potential consequences (especially for the risk to life & limb) is what makes me extremely careful.
I've seen plenty of people who have the lackadaisical attitude of "Oh heck - my plane's only worth a few bucks, so I can't be bothered spending $10 to fix it - I'll just go fly it until it comes apart" - not even bothering to think about the cost or the risk to life if it hits something or someone when it comes apart. Telling them that they don't need to worry about the cost of an airplane they shoot down (or the person that gets maimed or killed by the shot-down aircraft) just further promotes that kind of attitude IMO.
Gordon