Following a heads up from one of the Gyro Instructors it has come to our attention that an Instructor or qualified pilot who carries out a test flight, may NOT automatically be insured. Some brokers are stating that at your renewal you should specify who you would like to be able to fly your aircraft. This can be as wide as stating any qualified instructor or any pilot with 300 hours or more. (These are only examples) You the pilot need to read the small print and check to make sure that your insurer is covering you for such instances.
CSP said that in 90% of instances they had specified Instructors as covered, Haywards said it should be done by the individual at renewal and Sydney Charles sent over an extract stating that any qualified instructor or approved test pilot would be covered.
It is well worth you checking though, maybe before you have some maintenance carried out or you are asking someone to check your aircraft’s flight characteristics.
We actively encourage you to fly other pilots gyro’s (subject to them being a privilege on your licence and the relevant insurance being in place). This will undoubtedly help find any qwerks you may not notice yourself and should lead to us all flying safer aircraft.