Sport Pilot Talk

Something to beware of.

A friend of mine had a 172 and bought a Lowrance airmap color handheld GPS. Sold the airplane and bought a new LSA.

The LSA did not come with a GPS. His 172 had the GPS mounted to a clamp on yoke mount that came with the GPS.

Since the LSA did not have a yoke he ordered a RAM ball mount and attached it to the panel Then added his gps and powered it through the cigarett lighter plug.


He had an accident with the LSA. We removed the GPS after the accident but did not remove the ball. The claims agent came and after inspecting the airplane wondered what was mounted to the ball. We told him it was a Lowrance GPS and he said they could deny claim because it was not installed on the airplane legally or in weight and balance. But he would not and the claim went through.

A year and 2 months later the airplane comes up for bid on the AIG auction site.

Bidder comes to pick up airplane remains. Inventories everything and is happy. Leaves. Paid 6500 for remains of a 105,000 airplane. Many usable parts and parachute. Engine could also be repaired.

Just got a phone call from AIG. Bidder called them wondering about the Lowrance GPS listed on the spec sheet he bid on.

I told them it was a hand held and they argued it was their property. I said it was never in the airplane equipment, weight and balance and could be removed without using tools. Did not have any direct connection to aircraft power and no external antennas.

Is it theirs?

If I crash and the airplane is totalled do I lose my Bose headset? Portable Tcas? Cowl plugs, fuel tester, aftermarket step and towbar?


If I have wing covers on my 206 and another airplane taxis into the tail and totals it do I lose my wing cover set?


I've pretty much given up on insurance but this has me wondering because you cannot use a 337 to install anything in a SLSA so most people are using some kind of hand held device for a lot of things.

be careful what you carry I guess.

Cub Flyer,

You said AIG included the Lowrance GPS in the auction. Did the owner approve that, and agree to supply the unit? If not AIG should be supplying the bidder a gps.

You don't need 337's to alter an LSA. You need manufacturer approval only, and it is usually fairly simple to obtain, and can be done by email even. Much simpler.

It was all very odd.

The airplane sat here for over a year. I kept billing them for storage and kept asking when it would be listed for auction because some locals wanted the parts.

They would never respond with a date but paid the storage bill. Then I had trouble getting in touch with them for the storage bill for a few months.

They eventually paid but after I sent an letter stating we were going to scrap it if they did not respond. Just sent a check without an explanation.

No problem. Then one of the locals saw it was up for bid. He bid 5,000 or something like that. by the time I looked at the listing it was closed.

I just checked again and it is not on the closed list anymore.

The guy who won the bid had no idea what he was bidding on. Just wanted some parts. He had no idea it had a BRS etc.

Must have gone home and looked at his paperwork and called AIG. I don't know why he did not call us.

Even stranger is nobody from AIG called us to say he was coming for the airplane or that the bidding had ended. He could have been some guy off the street and just arrived saying "my airplane" and take it away.

He had a vague photo copy of the auction site saying he was the winning bidder and a copy of the check sent to AIG.

I have learned a lot about insurance in the last few years. Decided to forget the whole thing and just fly cheap airplanes and keep them in separate hangars. Unless it burns up I can fix it. Tornados are rare in PA and my Apache already has hail dents.

Oh the owner did not agree to give the GPS AIG. I would not have either.

Wonder what defines a permanant part of the airplane? I would say inclusion into the equipment list and weight and balance. All items listed should be accounted for.

They were.