Earthstar Forums

Please advise where i can view/peruse narrations of enforcement actions taken against owner/pilots accused/convicted of operating illegal ultralights.

Please advise contact information for insurers providing liability coverage for ultralights and the general disposition of such claims against the insured if the craft is found not to meet part 103 regulations;such as overweight,greater fuel capacity,
higher operating speeds etc.

There seems to be a perceived consensus among ultralight owner pilots that if one doesn't "do nuttin stupid" a live and let live attitude prevails among enforcement and regulatory bodies.
While this may be true, i find it hard to believe that an insurer would not immediately declare void insurance on a vehicle claiming to be/operating as an ultralight found to be otherwise.

Are there liability insurance options for unregistered flying machines that do not meet Part 103 rules?

Hi Lee,

The kinds of stats you're asking about are not publicly-available stats if they exist at all. You can get $1 million liability through the United States Hang Gliding Assn. (you can find website searching that org name in Google). I think my policy this fall was close to $500 for a year, for a Thunder Gull JT2. I was never able to buy hull insurance for my Thunder Gull because I flew it from a dirt runway.

NTSB does not investigate ultralight accidents. Nor does FAA unless there is death, serious injury to others or serious damage to private property. If you're flying in a sparsely-populated area you shouldn't have much to worry about. If you're in an urban area, things are much more problematic. I based and flew in the lightly-populated desert of northern Los

Angeles County and the common experience was that if it looked like an ultralight there wasn't any enforcement going on to prove it wasn't. I participated in a couple of recoveries of forced landings, one on a public highway, the other near a public highway with plane carried out to the highway to load on the rescue trailer. In neither case did law enforcement respond, nor the FAA. No injuries either case, but one was very public with a Greyhound bus having to slow after plane landed pointing toward the bus and then was walked off the highway while bus drove slowly toward it. I witnessed that engine-failure incident from the air as I was buddy flying with the other pilot at the time.

I also know of another ultralight accident near a rural heavily-traveled freeway in which the pilot was seriously injured and paramedics and ambulance responded. No action was taken against plane owner, who was not the pilot, and FAA was never involved. 2-stroke engine failure, landing on a dirt construction road adjacent freeway. Guy wire for a power pole was not seen and it ruined a really nice landing setup.

 
Dick O'Reilly

Mr.OReilly has kindly offered his thoughts and anecdotal experiences.
I will attempt to clarify my concerns.
At 79.5 years of age there is no freaking way that i am going to put all that i have worked for in jeopardy by not having IRONCLAD! IRREVOCABLE! liability insurance.
I could care less about the hull.
If i am sued [rightly or wrongly] for causing damage injury or death i want to be 100% certain that my insurance cannot be voided by some rules violation that pertains to the legality of the craft i was operating at the time of the occurrence.
While i will most certainly check with the hang gliding association as Richard suggests;i find it hard to conceive of any insurer covering a craft that operates outside the rules for it's class.

We all have knowledge, or even personally experienced an official overlooking what is obviously an illegal ultralight that is being operated "safe and sane" and bothering nobody.
But i once again find it hard to believe that there is no record of any rules enforcement,fines etc,since if your craft does not meet the ultralight regs, you are at the very least an unlicensed pilot flying an unregistered aircraft.

You can fool some of the people some of the time ETC;ETC;
Signed:Chicken wings.

Lee,

I misidentified the organization. It is the U.S. Ultralight Assn. and here is their website where you can judge for yourself if the insurance is legit.  http://www.usua.org/Insurance/
 

Dick O'Reilly