DJI should have called me and made me the face of their new drone insurance policy. I've crashed many of their drones, destroyed one, and lost another. Sadly, I didn't have the luxury of buying insurance, but now, you do... but it's probably too expensive.
Right now, DJI will only insure the Phantom 3 series and the Inspire 1 series drones. You can buy the plan in six-month or one-year installments and you cannot add time after the first year.
To insure the Phantom 3 Pro, it will cost $189 for six months or $279 for one year. That's pretty expensive considering you can buy a new one for just $999 at the moment. It's also even more expensive when you consider that the majority of drone deaths occur around water. If you lose the drone, the insurance will not cover you. If you submerge the drone and retrieve it (and destroy 80% of the parts) you will only be partially covered.
Your aircraft is considered 'completely damaged' if over 80% of the aircraft parts are damaged. We usually recommend replacing your aircraft if it is completely damaged.
For the 6-month plan, if your aircraft is completely damaged or presumed to be completely damaged and needs to be exchanged with a new one, the coverage amount left in your DJI Care plan can be used for the exchange in the first 5 months during the period of validity. However, if your aircraft is completely damaged or presumed to be completely damaged and needs to be exchanged with a new one 30 days before the period of validity expires, you will be compensated at either the coverage amount left or 80% of the purchase price of the aircraft, whichever is lower.
For the 1-year plan, if your aircraft is completely damaged or presumed to be completely damaged and needs to be exchanged with a new one, the coverage amount left in your DJI Care plan can be used for the exchange in the first 10 months during the period of validity. However, if your aircraft is completely damaged or presumed to be completely damaged and needs to be exchanged with a new one 60 days before the period of validity expires, you will be compensated at either the coverage amount left or 60% of the purchase price of the aircraft, whichever is lower.
If you have an Inspire One V2, a year of coverage will cost you $699. The cost of this insurance puts this out of reach of the average casual drone pilot. If, however, you use your drone often and you are constantly putting it in danger, you may want to consider it.
will your insurance still cover it if your new pilot lic is suspended ?
Yeah, replacing the drone is the least of my worries, because the cost compared to just buying a new one is too high. Just for context though, run-of-the-mill personal liability insurance (aviation insurance) for an Inspire 1 is roughly $1,000 a year.
Why would a professional photographer need this when their business insurance should/will cover equipment damage or loss?
In the UK I could not find any photography insurance that would include drones as they are at high risk if accidents (their words). This was last year..not sure if things have changed now
Photoguard didn't say anything when I put a drone on my insurance with them. It does make me wonder if that means they just don't check what gear you list on their form though.
Andrew, Photoguard is my insurer as well and when I asked over the phone they came back to me with a big NO for drones. This was last year. I will need to renew in a couple of months so I will need to check this again with them
I checked with my insurance (State Farm) and they would not cover it- damage or liability. They forwarded me on to other companies and it was way too expensive.