OK - so let me preface this with the following. My investigations are from a purely hobbyist point and all checks are based upon my Mavic Air. So all quote prices are based on either a maximum of £1,000 with a single item max limit of £800 or an upto value of £750 (approx base price of a new Air).
A club membership of some form - FPVUK, BMFA, etc may get you a discount to some of these and / or add to your insured capability with PLI - public liability insurance or PI - professional indemnity.
Default assumptions - I will state where it is unclear, unknown or different - are:
- includes accidental
- includes flyaway
- includes theft
- includes some form of worldwide cover
All costs are rounded up/down to nearest £.
Eversure - annual cost £45
Excess: £100 but does not include flyaways
FlyIcarus - annual cost £84
Excess £77
Coverdrone - annual cost £80
Didn’t like these folks, practically wanted my inside leg measurements prior to giving me a cost. Makes me think you’d likely have to jump hoops to get paid out.
Excess £100
Includes £1Mil PLI
CCC3 - use ccc3.co.uk/drone - annual cost £45
Excess - not visible so assumption is zero
Need to join the club then add your level of cover. M/ship + Base level = £45
Includes £12M of PLI
States it newly add: accidental loss & damage which includes flyaways
Travel cover is a separate addon - £8 for Europe or £13 worldwide
DroneCoverClub - annual cost is £30 but need to select addons.
subsection of CCC3. If you don’t use my link above and click the drone insurance link it takes you to a whole new website - laid out exactly the same.
Main addon you’d want is accidental, loss & theft cover which adds a whopping £130
Be Careful the wording on the CCC3 site would imply you get ‘accidental damage & loss cover’ included in the base price (m/ship & £15) and I bet a lawyer would win the fight - their main page states that you buy membership and then add your cover choice from £15 but then outlines 3 areas in bold that appear to imply they are part of the base cover. If you then scroll down base (£15) only states: “£12m Public Liability and £10k Personal Accident Cover Only” and Silver adds £130 and gives you cover for up to £750.
Whereas the DroneCoverClub subsite is quite clear that it’s £30 plus extras with loss / damage starting at an extra £130pa
PhotoGuard - annual cost £28 but options available
Excess of £50
Base does not cover accidental / theft
Unclear if they cover flyaways
To get PLI of £1M and in-vehicle theft cover price goes up to £47 but can be reduced by upping your excess to £250 you can save a whole £5pa
Better option - go Pro - annual cost £49
Same excess, but includes larger limits, £1M PLI, accidental, hire cover, and more besides
Other possibilities:
Insurance4Drones - coming soon it states
DroneWorx - they use Photoguard
FlockCover - this is a per flight / session cover. Only any good for very occasional users.
YMMV, but for my money I’d say, without any club affiliation that Eversure appear to be the cheapest buy and cover but don’t include flyaways.
However, if you are a club member somewhere then FlyIcarus ^^ may get discounted. I say may as with not being a member it is hard to verify. For example, FPVUK state 50% off reducing their cost to £42 but then you also have to factor in the £20 FPVUK membership. Second, is this discount only for the fist year? Anyway, a truer cost if right is £62 for the first year and after that …?
^^ Coverdrone may well apply a discount to their cost as they ask about memberships but even though I clicked other and made up a m/ship number my cover cost didn’t change. Would it if I opted for one of their listed assocs - ARPAS-UK - Drone Safe Register (UK based ones only listed).
Have I missed any major ones that provide hobbyist insurance?