To Insure or Not to Insure...DJI Care vs. Alternatives

[TunjiY]

@GadgetGuy The tone of your message and your choice of words (buy NAM insurance for $287 in my paranoia; wasted $287 for a policy) insinuates a questioning of my intelligence. I am typically a reasonable, even-keeled guy and I have tried to be patient and understanding with your persistent and forceful "opinion" but no more.

If you had wanted to have an intellectual discourse on this subject, I would have been more than happy to but I definitely refuse to engage in any discussion with someone whom has shown themselves to be abrasive, argumentative and of having a set opinion. As such the issues you raised about NAM or DJI Care and whatever else are your concerns and yours only. You very first message on this thread start "Not having read the policy, I'll only say that you may also be very unhappy...". How can you expect me to take you serious when you formed an opinion not based on any semblance of facts?

Its laughable the high-horse attitude you've exhibited. You sir are not the teacher and everyone the student. I have absolutely no obligation to you nor any obligation to address your issues or defend any position to you! Hahaha you're quite laughable you know, who says stuff like this: "defend your decision to purchase the NAM policy, with specifics, which address all the concerns I brought up above. Convince me..."

Are you the self-proclaimed defender of Phantomhelp and random threads?? LOL, you have discovered my true identity boss...I am indeed a disguised commercial for NAM. Oh and I have a vested interest in promoting it...and with my own coupon code of course, can't forget to slip that in...

Honestly I personally don't care what conclusion you reach or your point of view on this thread anymore. I deal with similar minded people at work each day so I can honestly say that the opinions of abrasive people like you don't concern me.

I'd appreciate you taking your views elsewhere and leave me alone (although i'm sure you can't resist having the last say and will probably reply) . I however will not be replying to your message after this. I have better stuff to do...like learning more about my new hobby from people who aren't abrasive.

 

[TunjiY]

Lets dial it back a few notches in here fellas. No need to get all hot under the collar over insurance choices. We all have the choice to read the fine print and make our own decisions.

Completely agree. Unfortunately thats not always the case. I now remember why I have not joined or contributed to a forum in many many years.

Anyways, to each his/her own. I've said my last piece to Gadgetguy.

I still welcome anyone with an opinion on different insurance or want to constructively contribute input/point of view to keep posting this this thread!

 

[GadgetGuy]

@TunjiY If you can't defend your positions, attack the messenger. I get it.

 

[DroneX]

@TunjiY If you can't defend your positions, attack the messenger. I get it.

I personally bought the NAM insurance because it covers water crashes, which DJI does not. I will be flying over and around water quite a bit so this is the best I could find and makes sense for me. Also the customer reports who have had claims with NAM are positive, much more than I can say I have seen people talking about DJI's service.

I have pool noodles to strap on the legs when flying around / over water just so I can recover my craft if the prop breaks or flies off, motor flies off due to frame cracks etc....

We all know DJI would not cover such an incident (water damage, as it specifically says it does not cover that, or they will use the catch all "damage caused by flight in unsuitable flight environments"), yet now I do have a course of action to take if it does happen to me without having to shell out $700+ dollars for a new phantom.

So while you may be presenting yourself as knowledgeable regarding your opinions on NAM, you seem to have "accidentally" missed this one HUGE part of the NAM policy that makes a HUGE difference to people like me. I won't have to groan, moan and complain about DJI service on here if my P3 goes in the drink. You however will if you are covered under DJI care. Or perhaps you personally won't, because sounds like you can just go buy a new one whenever you please, I however can not and this policy was the best I could find for the type of flying I will be doing.

Either way, you should look into the way your present yourself in a public forum, because to me you seem like a giant douchebag. I mean I respect the amount of effort that you put into your posts and whatnot, but noticed how you conveniently left out any discussion of water damage because it didn't suit your narrative. You obviously have an agenda of some sort here, just not quite sure what it is.. Trying to use the time @TunjiY has been a member of the forum to somehow discredit him or paint him as someone promoting NAM for money is pretty low. The same could easily be said about you and DJI.. I won't go there however.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

@TunjiY If you can't defend your positions, attack the messenger. I get it.

Last warning people, next time warnings go out to all involved parties.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I personally bought the NAM insurance because it covers water crashes, which DJI does not. I will be flying over and around water quite a bit so this is the best I could find and makes sense for me. Also the customer reports who have had claims with NAM are positive, much more than I can say I have seen people talking about DJI's service.

I have pool noodles to strap on the legs when flying around / over water just so I can recover my craft if the prop breaks or flies off, motor flies off due to frame cracks etc....

We all know DJI would not cover such an incident (water damage, as it specifically says it does not cover that, or they will use the catch all "damage caused by flight in unsuitable flight environments"), yet now I do have a course of action to take if it does happen to me without having to shell out $700+ dollars for a new phantom.

So while you may be presenting yourself as knowledgeable regarding your opinions on NAM, you seem to have "accidentally" missed this one HUGE part of the NAM policy that makes a HUGE difference to people like me. I won't have to groan, moan and complain about DJI service on here if my P3 goes in the drink. You however will if you are covered under DJI care. Or perhaps you personally won't, because sounds like you can just go buy a new one whenever you please, I however can not and this policy was the best I could find for the type of flying I will be doing.

Either way, you should look into the way your present yourself in a public forum, because to me you seem like a giant douchebag. I mean I respect the amount of effort that you put into your posts and whatnot, but noticed how you conveniently left out any discussion of water damage because it didn't suit your narrative. You obviously have an agenda of some sort here, just not quite sure what it is.. Trying to use the time @TunjiY has been a member of the forum to somehow discredit him or paint him as someone promoting NAM for money is pretty low. The same could easily be said about you and DJI.. I won't go there however.

Yours is the kind of constructive reply I was looking for. The OP hasn't supplied any such detail, beyond his initial response, which said the turnaround time was faster (unlikely, considering the repair entity is in MD) and it was cheaper for two years. I confess I missed the water damage coverage, which in your situation, where you are willing to strap pool noodles on to aid in aircraft recovery, makes sense. I fly over saltwater 75% of the time on most of my flights, and putting pool noodles on would severely inhibit the performance of the aircraft, as would strapping on any additional equipment like a Get erback inflation device, rendering their use moot for my own use. So, while I now fully understand the benefit of NAM in your specific instance, the absolute requirement of recovering the aircraft to obtain coverage for water damage makes the NAM water damage coverage not particularly useful for most other water flyers like myself. Instead, I acquired a few lightly used P3P's for about $500 each, as back up birds. While a unit is out for repair, you'll want a backup bird anyway. Flying over water is actually far safer than flying over land. Much less things to crash into, and much better signal range. I have had two free DJI warranty covered crashes on P3P's over the last year. Neither happened over water, and fortunately, I found the first one, as it was several blocks away when it went down. As LuvMyTJ stated above, as long as you fully understand what you are buying, and it is still worth it, then it's an informed choice. Unfortunately, many policies like NAM are sold to people to don't fully understand all the exclusions I found in the policy and pointed out above. Lots of choices are now available, especially with DJI Care as the alternative, intended for newbie pilot error crashes. May your flying be completely crash free!

 

[RocketBrew]

I purchased the Gold Service Contract with No Deductible from Neary Aerial Media when they first offered it with the discount.
Had my first crash which broke the camera swivel at the gimbal on a Sunday, called to leave a message and got a real person at an answering service instead. He called me back that evening, and sent out a return shipping tag. I shipped it to them on a Monday, and got an e-mail a week later that they were shipping it back repaired. Return was slow USPS, but no shipping cost and it worked great!

 

[DroneX]

Yours is the kind of constructive reply I was looking for. The OP hasn't supplied any such detail, beyond his initial response, which said the turnaround time was faster (unlikely, considering the repair entity is in MD) and it was cheaper for two years. I confess I missed the water damage coverage, which in your situation, where you are willing to strap pool noodles on to aid in aircraft recovery, makes sense. I fly over saltwater 75% of the time on most of my flights, and putting pool noodles on would severely inhibit the performance of the aircraft, as would strapping on any additional equipment like a Get erback inflation device, rendering their use moot for my own use. So, while I now fully understand the benefit of NAM in your specific instance, the absolute requirement of recovering the aircraft to obtain coverage for water damage makes the NAM water damage coverage not particularly useful for most other water flyers like myself. Instead, I acquired a few lightly used P3P's for about $500 each, as back up birds. While a unit is out for repair, you'll want a backup bird anyway. Flying over water is actually far safer than flying over land. Much less things to crash into, and much better signal range. I have had two free DJI warranty covered crashes on P3P's over the last year. Neither happened over water, and fortunately, I found the first one, as it was several blocks away when it went down. As LuvMyTJ stated above, as long as you fully understand what you are buying, and it is still worth it, then it's an informed choice. Unfortunately, many policies like NAM are sold to people to don't fully understand all the exclusions I found in the policy and pointed out above. Lots of choices are now available, especially with DJI Care as the alternative, intended for newbie pilot error crashes. May your flying be completely crash free!

I think this was the type of discussion we were all hoping for in this thread, good on you for helping to steer this thread back on course. Another point I would like to discuss is the fact that the dji care was only available to me for 48 hours. After that I have to make a youtube video of the aircraft in operation etc in order to purchase. Which I understand from DJI's perspective, but couldn't be bothered doing myself.

NAM was a very fast and to the point service and I was very impressed with how quickly and easily the transaction was completed. There were no hoops to jump through, just took two pictures of my serial numbers, made my payment, and then digitally signed the pdf document that was sent to me and transaction complete. No need to go filming myself with the phantom in operation.

I will say the 15 day waiting period kind of sucks, but I understand the need for it. I have indeed chose not to fly for 15 days and it is killing me to get out and get flying again. But I will survive and to have water damage coverage is worth it to me.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I think this was the type of discussion we were all hoping for in this thread, good on you for helping to steer this thread back on course. Another point I would like to discuss is the fact that the dji care was only available to me for 48 hours. After that I have to make a youtube video of the aircraft in operation etc in order to purchase. Which I understand from DJI's perspective, but couldn't be bothered doing myself.

NAM was a very fast and to the point service and I was very impressed with how quickly and easily the transaction was completed. There were no hoops to jump through, just took two pictures of my serial numbers, made my payment, and then digitally signed the pdf document that was sent to me and transaction complete. No need to go filming myself with the phantom in operation.

I will say the 15 day waiting period kind of sucks, but I understand the need for it. I have indeed chose not to fly for 15 days and it is killing me to get out and get flying again. But I will survive and to have water damage coverage is worth it to me.

Thank you. I really don't have a "dog in this fight" or an agenda. I, too, am open to any reasonable alternative solution which is why I asked all the questions above, and even called my own Allstate agent for any possible coverage available to me, similar to the touted State Farm coverage. The answer was no, other than $1000 deductible on theft.

Out of curiosity, I, too, looked at the DJI requirements for DJI Care after 48 hours and found them too onerous. Understandably, neither DJI Care nor NAM want anyone buying coverage after a crash. If you instead set aside any such insurance premium into a personal "crash fund" reserve, if you never crash you have saved money. If you do crash, you have a goodly sum towards paying for any needed repairs towards any of your aircraft. Just depends upon whether you think crashing or not crashing is more likely. I plan not to crash, but if it happens, my DJI one year warranty will be my first recourse, unless I caused the crash. If I caused it, it's either repairable or not. If not, I have backup birds available. If it is, I can just pay for the repairs out of the money saved by not buying any insurance on any aircraft. The more aircraft you own, the more expensive the insurance becomes, and the less you need the insurance.

So, for me, I am using a combination of DJI warranty and self-insurance by acquiring lightly used back-up P3P aircraft for coverage. Paying DJI repair is another option for pilot error, as is dealing directly with Hani at www.uavrepairshop.com for repairs. Hani is the primary NAM "repair shop," located in MD, for all NAM claims. If you deal with Hani directly, there are no exclusions or 15 day waiting periods or uncovered water repairs. He will fix whatever you send him, and bill you, instead of NAM, for the repair, with the advantage that if you don't crash, you pay nothing! Cut out the middle man!

 

[TunjiY]

NAM was a very fast and to the point service and I was very impressed with how quickly and easily the transaction was completed. There were no hoops to jump through, just took two pictures of my serial numbers, made my payment, and then digitally signed the pdf document that was sent to me and transaction complete.

I purchased the Gold Service Contract with No Deductible from Neary Aerial Media when they first offered it with the discount.
Had my first crash which broke the camera swivel at the gimbal on a Sunday, called to leave a message and got a real person at an answering service instead. He called me back that evening, and sent out a return shipping tag. I shipped it to them on a Monday, and got an e-mail a week later that they were shipping it back repaired. Return was slow USPS, but no shipping cost and it worked great!

Thanks for getting this thread steered back on track guys and also providing your input and experience with NAM. I agree with both of your assessments above. My experience with signing up was very positive as well. Before signing the service contract, I emailed the owner Matt tons of questions and he patiently replied back to all my emails within hours. While I personally don't plan on flying over water at the moment, who knows where I'll be flying 2 years from now.

So what actually really sold me on NAM was one of my final email exchange with the owner. I have a question on his definition of retail cost for replacing your bird:

Hi Matt,

The services contracts mentions "The Aggregate Coverage (as defined herein) under this agreement is limited to two (2) times the full retail cost of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle covered in this Contract"
Can you explain what is meant by retail cost? My concern is that for any type of high end consumer product like this, the "retail" cost will continuously decrease as the manufacture releases newer models and/or as supple on the open market increases.

I want to be sure that my services contract "value" is not going to be decreasing over the next 2 year of its service length.


******************************************His Reply******************************************

That limit is nearly impossible to hit. If you even come close to that, I’ll just replace your drone. The contract was written by an attorney who knows nothing about drones other than what I’ve told him so that he could write the contract. Just keep in mind that I have never denied a claim and not a single one of my customers is in danger of hitting the aggregate limit.


Thanks! We look forward to keeping you in the air!!

 

[CCDD]

FWIW, my P3P did end up in a lake and although I recovered it, DJI never asked to see it or for me to send it in. They admitted the loss was likely due to mechanical issue based on provided flight log and sent me a new replacement. I know many have a certain "comfort" level with an insurance contract however, I will agree with GG that it's often best to save your money and use it for something else whether it be for repair or replacement in case you do happen to lose your bird.

 

[GadgetGuy]

FWIW, my P3P did end up in a lake and although I recovered it, DJI never asked to see it or for me to send it in. They admitted the loss was likely due to mechanical issue based on provided flight log and sent me a new replacement. I know many have a certain "comfort" level with an insurance contract however, I will agree with GG that it's often best to save your money and use it for something else whether it be for repair or replacement in case you do happen to lose your bird.

That was my understanding as well. The DJI one year warranty will cover your bird for all non-"pilot error" crashes, whether over land or water. Pilot error is not covered without the new DJI care, and DJI Care also requires aircraft recovery, as does NAM, which is really just a prepaid contract repair policy provided by Hani of www.uavrepairshop.com and offered in the form of an insurance policy through NAM, in a joint partnership between them.

 

[DroneX]

That was my understanding as well. The DJI one year warranty will cover your bird for all non-"pilot error" crashes, whether over land or water. Pilot error is not covered without the new DJI care, and DJI Care also requires aircraft recovery, as does NAM, which is really just a prepaid contract repair policy provided by Hani of www.uavrepairshop.com and offered in the form of an insurance policy through NAM, in a joint partnership between them.

I don't quite understand how putting my $215 it cost me for insurance in the bank would save me money on repair if I have a crash. Sure if it is just a motor or shell that needs replacing then fine. But what if I crash and smash the camera, gimbal, shell, and a couple of motors, that $215 is not going to fix all of that, with insurance, it will. Going and spending $500 on a used drone as a backup does not make sense to me when I can wait a week or two and have mine repaired under insurance for $215... max. You think Hani is going to fix it for less than that outside of NAM?

Basically in my opinion you've bought insurance for 2 or 3 times the price I did (Per phantom) by buying extra phantoms "just in case". If you are commercial, I can understand the downtime can cost you money, but if not then really there is no need other than the fact that you can't wait a couple of weeks for repair. Maybe I am missing something you are saying?

It's not like we lose our 1 year DJI warranty by purchasing insurance elsewhere, now I have pilot error / water damage insurance for 2 years along with the DJI 1 year warranty. Basically I am covered for just about any type of crash for 1 year, and then pilot error for the second year.. for $215 that is a good deal to me.

 

[GadgetGuy]

I don't quite understand how putting my $215 it cost me for insurance in the bank would save me money on repair if I have a crash. Sure if it is just a motor or shell that needs replacing then fine. But what if I crash and smash the camera, gimbal, shell, and a couple of motors, that $215 is not going to fix all of that, with insurance, it will. Going and spending $500 on a used drone as a backup does not make sense to me when I can wait a week or two and have mine repaired under insurance for $215... max. You think Hani is going to fix it for less than that outside of NAM?

Basically in my opinion you've bought insurance for 2 or 3 times the price I did (Per phantom) by buying extra phantoms "just in case". If you are commercial, I can understand the downtime can cost you money, but if not then really there is no need other than the fact that you can't wait a couple of weeks for repair. Maybe I am missing something you are saying?

It's not like we lose our 1 year DJI warranty by purchasing insurance elsewhere, now I have pilot error / water damage insurance for 2 years along with the DJI 1 year warranty. Basically I am covered for just about any type of crash for 1 year, and then pilot error for the second year.. for $215 that is a good deal to me.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but based upon your two year price of $215, I am assuming that you didn't buy the 2 year NAM $319 P3P Gold service, so, as I understand it, if you insured a P3P for two years, you have a $50 shipping cost to MD, a $50 evaluation cost, and a $75 per incident deductible to pay for every incident, on top of the $215. If that is not the case, then you have a 2 year Gold contact on an aircraft other than the P3P, and whichever aircraft that is (P3A, P3S, P3 4K), it's replacement cost is substantially cheaper than the P3P's I own, and have backup P3P's for. I know aircraft are eventually going to fail, and I don't want to ever have to wait 2-6 weeks to be able to fly again, while waiting for a warranty or insurance repair to be completed, or to find and buy a replacement P3P which is identical to my main bird. The original old motor W323 P3P's that I fly are no longer sold. They are the only P3P that was sold with .746 watts of video power from the aircraft, which is required for my type of flying. It took me 4 months to acquire two more lightly used ones. No amount of insurance money can replace them, if they are totaled, or more likely drowned. Just explaining my thought process, which I went through. Hani is not repairing aircraft much cheaper for NAM than he would for you or I. Parts cost the same. He may be giving NAM a volume discount on labor, but he is not repairing aircraft for the price of the premium you paid for two years. NAM pays Hani to do the covered repairs for your aircraft just like anyone else does without any NAM insurance. Hani bills them for every repair, based upon the his cost of the repair, and his labor rate.

The alternative of putting the money paid for the insurance into a repair fund saves you money if you don't need any repairs, or if you have an uncovered repair. If you are making money off the policy, the insurance company is losing money. The only way they stay in business, to be able to pay any claims, is by paying out less in total claims, than they take in, in total premiums. The majority of their customers have to lose money on the policies they sell. They are banking on you losing money on the policy, so they can make a profit. Insurance companies typically do that by denying claims, not by paying them. The lawyer who wrote the policy for NAM wrote it in such a way that it allows NAM to pull the plug at any time, no matter how liberal they may be now in paying claims.

Self-insurance is best for experienced pilots. I am acting as NAM for myself. If I have a crash, I'll repair or replace the aircraft with the premiums I saved by not buying anyone else's insurance, which, on three P3P's and a P4, is a nice nest egg!

 

[DroneX]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but based upon your two year price of $215, I am assuming that you didn't buy the 2 year NAM $319 P3P Gold service, so, as I understand it, if you insured a P3P for two years, you have a $50 shipping cost to MD, a $50 evaluation cost, and a $75 per incident deductible to pay for every incident, on top of the $215. If that is not the case, then you have a 2 year Gold contact on an aircraft other than the P3P, and whichever aircraft that is (P3A, P3S, P3 4K), it's replacement cost is substantially cheaper than the P3P's I own, and have backup P3P's for. I know aircraft are eventually going to fail, and I don't want to ever have to wait 2-6 weeks to be able to fly again, while waiting for a warranty or insurance repair to be completed, or to find and buy a replacement P3P which is identical to my main bird. The original old motor W323 P3P's that I fly are no longer sold. They are the only P3P that was sold with .746 watts of video power from the aircraft, which is required for my type of flying. It took me 4 months to acquire two more lightly used ones. No amount of insurance money can replace them, if they are totaled, or more likely drowned. Just explaining my thought process, which I went through. Hani is not repairing aircraft much cheaper for NAM than he would for you or I. Parts cost the same. He may be giving NAM a volume discount on labor, but he is not repairing aircraft for the price of the premium you paid for two years. NAM pays Hani to do the covered repairs for your aircraft just like anyone else does without any NAM insurance. Hani bills them for every repair, based upon the his cost of the repair, and his labor rate.

The alternative of putting the money paid for the insurance into a repair fund saves you money if you don't need any repairs, or if you have an uncovered repair. If you are making money off the policy, the insurance company is losing money. The only way they stay in business, to be able to pay any claims, is by paying out less in total claims, than they take in, in total premiums. The majority of their customers have to lose money on the policies they sell. They are banking on you losing money on the policy, so they can make a profit. Insurance companies typically do that by denying claims, not by paying them. The lawyer who wrote the policy for NAM wrote it in such a way that it allows NAM to pull the plug at any time, no matter how liberal they may be now in paying claims.

Self-insurance is best for experienced pilots. I am acting as NAM for myself. If I have a crash, I'll repair or replace the aircraft with the premiums I saved by not buying anyone else's insurance, which, on three P3P's and a P4, is a nice nest egg!

You are wrong. I have a P3A and the gold policy for 2 years came to $215 (after discount code). No deductible, no shipping as you have implied; I am NOT an experienced pilot. Also the P3P and P3A are not much different besides the 4k cam. So not sure what you are getting on with there. I understand your point but still know that for me $215 was a much better choice than buying a Phantom as a backup and spending $500+ more than I need to in order to get back flying again.

 

[captainmilehigh]

You are wrong. I have a P3A and the gold policy for 2 years came to $215 (after discount code). No deductible, no shipping as you have implied; I am NOT an experienced pilot. Also the P3P and P3A are not much different besides the 4k cam. So not sure what you are getting on with there. I understand your point but still know that for me $215 was a much better choice than buying a Phantom as a backup and spending $500+ more than I need to in order to get back flying again.

My Gold service contract on my Standard for Two Years was $199, free shipping. I'd rather have that than spend money buying 2nd hand used birds. But, to each his own. This is my choice.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[CCDD]

This topic has been beaten to death, lets move on guys. The Moderators should seriously consider closing out this thread.

 

[captainmilehigh]

This topic has been beaten to death, lets move on guys. The Moderators should seriously consider closing out this thread.

May be a good idea. We've all voiced our opinions and have made our choices. Mods, your move. [emoji41]


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[GadgetGuy]

You are wrong. I have a P3A and the gold policy for 2 years came to $215 (after discount code). No deductible, no shipping as you have implied; I am NOT an experienced pilot. Also the P3P and P3A are not much different besides the 4k cam. So not sure what you are getting on with there. I understand your point but still know that for me $215 was a much better choice than buying a Phantom as a backup and spending $500+ more than I need to in order to get back flying again.

Thanks for clarifying. The insurance prices go up in proportion to the retail price of the aircraft. I have only been using numbers and replacement prices for the P3P, so I thought you were, too. Got to compare like for like. I need the full 4K and the Lightbridge range, but the P3A numbers are in the same proportion as the P3P, but lower. Lightly used replacement P3A birds are now available for under $400, and they sold at launch for $999, and are under $600 new, if Microline has any left. If you are not an experienced pilot, you are statistically far more likely to crash, so it's probably a good value for you, if you can recover the aircraft, and don't mind letting the brand new bird sit on the shelf for 15 days. With the P3A, the $215 insurance is more than 50% of the current lightly used replacement cost for last year's model. It's expensive in proportion the the value now, and the value of a P3A and its replacement cost will continue to decline much further, over the next two years, as DJI brings out new models. Practice your flying skills with a virtually indestructible $50 Syma X5c during the next 15 days, and then you will be ready for the P3A. Learning to fly on a cheaper quad first is highly recommended. Experience is the very best insurance. Ask Sully!

 

[GadgetGuy]

My Gold service contract on my Standard for Two Years was $199, free shipping. I'd rather have that than spend money buying 2nd hand used birds. But, to each his own. This is my choice.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

Your insurance buys you the repair of your crashed aircraft with refurbished parts, salvaged from other crashed aircraft, not a new one, so, you will end up with a used, previously crashed, but repaired bird after any crash. My choice was to buy uncrashed used birds with my reserve funds as replacements, as needed. The NAM policy covers one specific aircraft, and the 2 year coverage ends the moment that aircraft is ever lost or stolen, as the policy cannot be transferred to a new aircraft. My self-insurance method covers all my aircraft forever, and also gives me extra aircraft to fly. Each aircraft is a backup for all the others. As long as everyone understands all their options and choices, and makes a fully informed decision that is right for them, it's all good.