AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2013 - 102

NEWS & NOTES

AOPA FOUNDATION

Educating pilots on improving their skills and enhancing GA safety is a core tenet
of the AOPA Foundation’s Air Safety Institute and its educational programs.
Show your support with a donation today (www.aopafoundation.org/donate).
NEW PROGRAM
SHINES LIGHT ON
GENERAL AVIATION

VFR not recommended
Outmaneuver inadvertent VFR flight into IMC
AS YOU LOOK OUT THE WINDOW seeing severe clear conditions at your departure airport,
a flight service briefer’s “VFR not recommended for your route” is hard to swallow and
may tempt you to throw caution to the wind and take off anyway. You justify your decision by saying that if the weather changes en route, you can always land. But will you
stick to that plan? As the visibility drops and clouds force you to descend, will you land?
Or will you press on because you’re almost there?
Getting caught off guard flying VFR into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
can quickly lead to loss of aircraft control caused by spatial disorientation—the outcome
of which all too often becomes the subject of a NTSB accident investigation.
Instead, find out more about what happens when visibility deteriorates or clouds and terrain squeeze a VFR flight into IMC: Download the Air Safety
Institute’s VFR into IMC Syllabus. The 12-page booklet includes
ground and flight lesson plans, and provides guidance on objecON THE
tives, discussion points, and completion standards for each
WEB
lesson. The curriculum is designed to be followed under the
DOWNLOAD the syllabus
direction and supervision of a qualified flight instructor and
and “IMC Escape
was created to help you recognize and understand conditions
Procedures” checklist
that can lead to inadvertent VFR flight into IMC—and how to
(www.airsafetyinstitute.
org/vfrintoimc_syllabus).
safely escape IMC should visual references be lost.

THE AOPA FOUNDATION recently
created a program to show its
appreciation for the great work
being done through general aviation. Giving Back will award
10 grants of up to $10,000 each
to nonprofit groups doing charitable work through GA (see
“Foundation Focus,” page 22).
Whether you want to join the
Foundation’s Giving Back initiative by donating to the Foundation
or you’d like to apply for a grant,
find everything you need to know
about Giving Back, including
grant applications online (www.
aopafoundation.org/giving-backprogram). Grant applications are
due by July 1.

INSURANCE FILE
BY BRENDA J. JENNINGS

Medical payments
LET’S SAY YOU or one of your passengers suffer an injury while
in your aircraft. Medical payments coverage pays the medical
expenses for those injuries, including ambulance, surgical, dental,
professional nursing, and the like. It also covers injuries that occur
to anyone entering or leaving your airplane. Regardless of who’s
at fault in the accident, your policy will pay the set amount (usually between $1,000 and $10,000 per passenger) for those related
medical expenses. Because its purpose is to pay for immediate
medical treatment, most policies have a time limit on the payment
of medical services provided.
Carrying medical payments coverage on your policy is a smart
idea because it can sometimes cover the smaller injury claims
and prevent a larger lawsuit against your bodily injury liability

102 | AOPA PILOT June 2013

Senior Vice President, AOPA Insurance Services

coverage. Additionally, it may pay expenses not covered by personal health insurance. The good news is that this coverage is
often available at little to no extra cost, with rates varying by the
number of passenger seats on your airplane and the limit you
choose. Even better news is that most policies will include the
crew in the coverage. For those bodily injury claims for which you
are legally liable, coverage would be provided under the bodily
injury and property damage section of your policy.
Brenda J. Jennings is an aviation insurance professional with
more than 35 years of experience.
WEB www.aopainsurance.org

http://www.aopafoundation.org/donate http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/vfrintoimc_syllabus http://www.aopafoundation.org/giving-back-program http://www.aopafoundation.org/giving-back-program http://www.aopafoundation.org/giving-back-program http://www.airsafetyinstitute.org/vfrintoimc_syllabus http://www.aopainsurance.org

AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2013