Insurance progression, up to air tour part 91

[rezaf_2000]

Ok, let's say Mr. John Q. Public gets his sport license and buys an S-LSA. He insures it, and starts flying. Once in a while he gets his good friend Ms. Jane Q. Citizen on a trip and share the cost of gas and oil with her. No problem, same insurance and same maintenance regimen (an annual inspection required once a year). That's a sweet arrangement, and many more of his friends share flights with him.

Down the road, John decides to get his private pilot license to fly at nights, and after 250 hours of flying (with friends), he decides to apply for a commercial pilot license, with additional training including some hours in rental complex aircraft.

Now that he has a commercial license, John thinks he can start an air tour operation to make more money out of his aviation hobby and his investment (his own SLSA). So far he has shared half the cost of gas and oil with his passengers/friends, but now that he has a commercial license, he can charge more! Probably the easiest route for him is to operate under 14 CFR 91.146 (?). He obtains an LOA from the local FSDO for his one-man air tour operation, and starts advertising for local sight seeing non-stop flights within 25 nautical miles of the home airport.

1. Does he need to change his airplane insurance? If so, to what? Does the rate dramatically increase?

2. Does he need to change the maintenance regimen? For example, we know that for a flight training operation one has to perform 100-hour maintenance instead of annual, but what about for a part 91 air tour operation?

3. Can an E-LSA be used for air tours? What about the insurance?

[3Dreaming]

Yes, insurance will change to commercial and go up in rate.
You will need to change to a standard category aircraft. ELSA and SLSA can not be used for the operations you describe.

[drseti]

Does the rate dramatically increase?

Mine did. In my old Beechcraft (complex, high performance) with me as sole pilot, my rate was $850/yr. The commercial policy on the SportStar (used as a flight school aircraft) runs me around $4800.