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Insurance ... again....
Posted by Geoff Minshull at 2010-07-17 21:24

I know we (the LMSC committee) mention this frequently, the need for all people flying LMSC sites to either be members of the BHPA, OR to have equivalent third party insurance, but a couple of incidents in the last few weeks highlight the need for it.

1. A few weeks ago a PG pilot took out some power lines below the Mynd, wiping out the power to one or two local villages. We don't know who this was, it wasn't reported, but it definitely happened. As far as we can gather they disappeared - uninjured - without leaving a name anywhere. Now, power companies increasingly sue to recover costs when this happens - hence the value of third party insurance.

2. Today, a hang glider pilot misjudged his top landing approach, and damaged a car. He is almost certainly not insured, and will need to pay for the repairs himself.

Sooner or later, someone will have a very expensive accident, and casue serious damage to a third party. The LMSC cannot knowingly allow non-insured pilots to fly our sites, because we do not want the liability to extend to the club (and so threaten its existence), and we expect pilots not in the BHPA to furnish us with details of their current insurance.

Geoff.

Posted by Nigel Rue at 2010-07-17 22:11

Maybe it`s time to make the Long Mynd site a BHPA members only site.

I don`t like restrictions on flying sites, but I don`t want the existence of my club threatened either.

Posted by Geoff Minshull at 2010-07-17 22:33 [Post deleted by moderator]

Posted by Geoff Minshull at 2010-07-17 23:16

Hi Nigel,

It would certainly be simpler, and would mean that we no longer had to ask non-BHPA members to provide evidence of insurance. That would be a constitutional change for the LMSC, but could be done. Personally, I would much prefer it that way.

Posted by David Broughton at 2010-07-18 09:05

Many visitors to the Mynd come regularly several times a year and are only saving money by not being members if they avoid paying the w/e fee. But provision ought to be made for the (few) who genuinely only visit in passing once or twice a year.

I would favour a DSC-type arrangement whereby a week's temporary membership is available for £5 to be arranged prior to visiting. Of course this entails additional work to administer.

It may be that the pilot who took out the power lines was unaware they had caused any damage & WAS covered by BHPA insurance if they (or the club) had been landed with a charge. Of course an incident report should have been made.

It seems the HG pilot who damaged a car was knowingly flying in contravention of the site rules and consideration should be given to banning them from all club sites for (at least) the rest of this season and requiring them to prove their status is in order before being allowed back. (Who was it?)

Posted by Geoff Minshull at 2010-07-18 11:40

Hi Dave,

thanks for that.

I spoke to the hang glider pilot at some length, and I'm satisfied that it was an honest mistake on his part - he's only just come back to the UK from being abroad. He will rejoin the BHPA this week. He was incredibly apologetic about the whole thing. And, of course, he is paying for the car repair.

On the site fees, as far as we can tell, the great majority of visitors do pay it. There are some - a small number - of people who don't, including some local pilots who are not in the LMSC. But overall, we're very happy with the way this works.

On issuing temporary memberships, I'm extremely reluctant to do anything which increases the workload for the committee. If anything, I want to reduce the workload, and to an extent we have done that already in other ways (for example, by not expecting committee members to go around collecting site fees). We do need to have new committee members to replace retiring ones, and if the workload is too heavy, we will not get volunteers coming forward (it's difficult enough as it is, to get new people!).

Also, temporary memberships wouldn't solve the problem. At least with the one year memberships, we can occasionally run checks against the BHPA membership number to ensure that their membership is still current. We can't do that - in practical terms - with temporary memberships. And we can't, before anyone suggests it, make the Mynd LMSC members-only. This goes against the terms of the agreement with the BHPA when the club bought the Mynd. But we CAN make it BHPA members only.

I should say that the vast majority of people, including visitors, do respect the rules. Those who break them more often than not do it through ignorance, rather than deliberately.

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