Hobbyist Drone Insurance Investigations ... June 2019

Questions & Answers
1

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 :slight_smile:

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?

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Thanks Stuart
Just going to update my insurance with cover drone but obviously for commercial
Very useful for most of the regular members though
Thanks

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Great info thanks :pray:

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Great post @stubbyd mate, thanks for sharing your findings in such detail :smiley:

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Seems to me it’s about £80 with the same as excess if you want flyaway cover and that is Icarus. That’s a lot for £750 of kit. Wonder if an add on or specific item to home insurance would be cheaper. I am not insurered as a hobbyist nor a member of any clubs nor do o have Refresh but I do worry about flyaways or 3rd party liability…

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6

My concern with making a claim on your home insurance is the increased premiums you’d then have to pay for the next five years/

Even if you changed provider you’d still have to declare your previous claim, much like car insurance.

That cost in premium increase over five years could cost more than the drone :thinking:

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Thanks for the info mate. Very useful.
About a month ago (when I bought the drone) I went for liability with BMFA for about £39 including Europe and rest of the world because when I bought the M2P I got a discounted DJI care for a year.
In a year time I will definitely review this.
Btw, is flyaway when you loose the drone and cannot be retrieved?
Thanks

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8

That’s always th ething with insurance… where it isn’t legally mandated (e.g. car) then it’s a cost v risk assessment you have to do.

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I’ve had to make a few claims for my DSLR - fat feet, & nowhere near my tripod but somehow managed to slip and kick it causing it to topple on to the lens. I had no noticeable increase in premiums but that might be due to my habit of insurance hopping or phoning them up and saying that’s a bit steep,!

In fact just did that with my car insurance - went up by £130 so phoned and asked nicely and they reduced it by £170. This despite the wife writing off her car 1yr ago, then got a speed awareness course, then heavily dinged her car about 2mths back…!!! I’m not made of money :smiley:

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10

This may differ from company to company but generally a flyaway is deemed to be where you have lost control of the drone amd it disappears in the distance. It doesn’t respond to RTH, etc…

Eversure clarified this for me, they said: “our policy classes flyaway as the point where you have zero control over the drone, i.e. it simply stops responding to the control unit and vanishes off into the distance. here is often inbuilt functionality to force a drone to return to it’s launch zone if the control link is lost, anything outside of this we would class as a manufacturer fault and would therefore not be covered.”

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Thank you Stuart

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12

Good info.

Flyaways are rare, right?

I just cancelled my BackMeUp insurance as they’re closing business from August. Had to make a claim with them after only being with them a month. Paid out without much hassle. Would’ve continued with them if they weren’t closing down.

Not sure if I’ll insure again as I’m flying less and less and my MP is decreasing in value.

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As far as I know yes. However, for most insurers to either specifically exclude it or charge extra then statistically they have to be ‘one of those things’ that does happen.

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Does anyone fly with insurance? if so which one? also do you register your drone ? Thanks Harvey

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Worth a look at the this previous thread, some good info

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Thanks

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I don’t yet have insurance and tbh, I’m wondering if I need it too… I have the DJI refresh program and seldom fly it near anyone (any more :wink:) since I’ve gained a better appreciation for the risks and tbh, just how I like flying… which is away from anyone other than other drone users! Would most hobbyists get this for peace of mind? Taking into consideration I still have teh refresh cover, has anyone claimed for something outside refresh that I should consider?

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18

When you say insurance, are you asking about public liability (should you injure someone) or insurance for the drone to get a new one if damaged.

Public liability I use FPVUK £19.99 and covered upto £5 million … https://www.fpvuk.org/

Drone cover I currently have DJI care refresh

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19

@Ruffdog64 I’ve moved your post to the existing thread that @mickydd highlighted.

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20

I went with FlyIcarus, as I am a member of FPVUK, then added World Cover.
I feel it is showing “Responsibility” to be insured with any sizable drone.
Just my personal opinion.

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