For me, I could never decide for one country either, so I am not an AOPA member. I fly in another country than where I live, and my passport is from neither of these.
The moment that we have one AOPA for the whole of Europe, I will become a member of that. If not, it’s probably soon going to be the US branch in order to get their renters’ insurance.
Rwy20 wrote:
it’s probably soon going to be the US branch in order to get their renters’ insurance
It seems to me that AOPA is mainly an insurance broker 8-)
In Switzerland, too, they insist on selling you an insurance whether you want it or not…
Would US AOPA’s insurance be valid outside the USA?
The moment that we have one AOPA for the whole of Europe
That will never happen – for cultural reasons alone. And even if there was a single language, you would need to bang a lot of heads together.
Hence the old joke that if you put four pilots on a desert island, after a year you get four type specific user groups, two splinter groups, four pilot forums each one with 20 members.
Unfortunately, GA here in Europe is its worst enemy. I have been to so many meetings and presentations and conferences where people just vent their frustration at how Group A does not want to work with Group B. And this is against the backdrop of most of Europe’s land area having almost no GA activity… look at the average Spanish airfield with 30cm grass growing around the (flat) tyres.
Peter wrote:
The discount is not big – about the cost of a fish
Ha ha, must be the most imprecise measure of cost I have ever seen:
This fish cost 43,000.00 £ The record is 900,000.00 £ for a slightly smaller one in 2013.
OK, how about this one
tomjnx wrote:
In Switzerland, too, they insist on selling you an insurance whether you want it or not…
I couldn’t find that on the page you linked to. It says that you get special rates for insurance, but it is not stated in the perks included with the membership. Or did I miss something?
Peter wrote:
Would US AOPA’s insurance be valid outside the USA?
No. This would be for renting a plane in the US. My last experience was to take out renters insurance, and then receive a check in the mail two months later with a reimbursement because I would have had to indicate a US address for them to be able to insure me. I don’t know if I would have been covered during the time until I received that letter, but fortunately I didn’t need it. Had I been AOPA member, the then “free” insurance (minus bank fees for cashing in a US USD check) would have been half price. Next time I plan to indicate the FBO’s address according to their suggestion, to be on the safe side with the insurance.
@rwy20: took me a little search to find it, too, but it is there allright at http://new.aopa.ch/public/versicherungen/
What was the membership fee before this mandatory insurance?
Quite strangely, they don’t state what this insurance covers, except a vague indication of certain gaps in the present arrangements. That does smell fishy.
PapaPapa wrote:
I know AOPA belgium is revived @Jan_Olieslagers
I am also interested in the contact details!
Thx!
AOPA Switzerland holds various training seminars and are politically quite active even if they appear silent to the casual observer. So I would think this should be your choice as you live and fly here. Of course there is also a quite active branch in BG.
And yes. Being a member here means also being with IAOPA. The different national organisations are all under the cover of IAOPA.
Peter wrote:
OK, how about this one
Looks like a smaller and cheaper fish.
