Story ID: 122
Starr Offers Usage-based Insurance Pricing
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: By sharing flight records with Starr Insurance, pilots can obtain discounts on aircraft rental insurance.
Word Count: 461
Underwriter Starr Insurance has launched a new kind of aircraft rental insurance for pilots who don’t need consistent coverage. The new Starr Gate policy allows pilots to rent in monthly blocks and gain discounts by sharing flight records with Starr.

Pilots can access Starr Gate on their own, using Starr’s iPad app, or purchase the insurance through brokers. Coverage is available for single- and multiengine piston-powered airplanes, piston rotorcraft, and single-engine seaplanes. The company gives discounts for recent training and membership in the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators.

Additional potential discounts are available through the sharing of flight records via the CloudAhoy postflight briefing system. Starr Gate customers can access the CloudAhoy scoring tool for free and share recorded information from their flights to be scored by CloudAhoy, which then shares it with Starr Insurance. Pilots record flight information using the Starr Gate app, which can then send it to Starr. While the CloudAhoy scoring tool is free for Starr Gate customers, they do have to pay for CloudAhoy’s service, or they can access a free trial of CloudAhoy to see how it works.

Pilots don’t have to share every recorded flight with Starr, a company spokesman explained. “Pilots maintain control over what data they share to the app for scoring. Each track log is chosen by the pilot and scored on a flight-by-flight basis.”

An instructor, for example, might not want to share a recorded track log of a flight with a new student pilot, he noted. After sharing track logs with Starr, “the app then displays a running average of the flights that have been scored and calculates discounts based on the recency, number of, and value of the scores of the flights the pilot has chosen to share.”

The coverage not only helps pilots obtain discounts for flying safely but also helps them avoid paying for insurance when it isn’t needed. For example, if a pilot is taking a long vacation and doesn’t plan to fly, those months wouldn’t need insurance coverage. Or a pilot might not need coverage while a rental airplane is down for extended maintenance.

“Using data-driven technology to provide quantitative, objective feedback to pilots has always been part of our vision,” said CloudAhoy creator and CEO Chuck Shavit. “We are delighted to see it used in a positive way to reward pilots and to promote safety and proficiency.”

“Starr Gate is better aligned with a pilot’s skills and flight time,” said Jim Anderson, senior v-p of Starr Aviation. “With CloudAhoy data, we can write coverage in high definition. It’s customized insurance that can make you a better pilot.”