"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 22 February 2006

From The President - By Todd Michel

Dear Members,

Thanks to Mike Warakomski for preparing the minutes from our club meeting which are included in this newsletter. Thank you all for working together at our club meeting to arrive at a unanimous decision on the plane upgrades. The planned modifications will vastly increase the utility and value of the airplane. John did a great job tracking down a great price on the upgrades. Hopefully we can complete the addition of a new member and order the equipment in time to get it installed during or shortly after the annual inspection. .

Happy Landings!
Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

With the payments for all the flight time on the previous bill, and low fuel charges this month, we had an increase of $446 to $1804.53 in the Adjusted Treasury this month. It's looking good for the Annual coming up this spring. With the low flight time (1.1 hours) this past month, I don't excpect much of an increase (if any) next month.

Since we are selling the 8th share and starting to buy the new avionics soon, we'll be needing cash to pay for that. Please add $820 to your balance due to cover the cost of the new avionics. Please send the payments to me as a check payable to the club. The personal free Pay Pal account has a monthly limit that won't allow this to go through there.

The extra payment will be shown as a credit on your account. As the avionics are paid for by the club, the equipment will be shown as an asset of the club so that the cash paid out and the value of the asset cancel and will not affect the share value yet. When the installation is complete, the new equipment will no longer be shown as a club asset, the new (higher) value of the plane will be determined, and each member will be billed for their equal part of the actual upgrade cost (which will be mostly covered by the credit on your account). That will then show the new share value.

Maintenance - by John

No new problems or issues to report this month. .

Club Meeting Minutes - by Mike Warakomski

St Louis Flying Club
Club meeting 29 Jan 2006
Minutes

All members were present for the meeting held at JetCorp at Spirit of St Louis Airport. 5 items were put on the agenda for discussion and action:

Status/Upgrade plans for NAV equipment
Engine Cylinder Compression
By Law Updates
Moving up to a higher performance aircraft.
Adding an 8th club member

Agenda Item 4:

General discussion followed on the idea of buying a higher performance aircraft and the general consensus was to keep the 172 that we have as it suited our needs.

Agenda Item 1:

John presented several scenarios for replacing the radios and associated items. Prices shown are for comparison purposes and do not include installation costs.

Option A: Replace existing NAV radios with new or refurb - $8,820.00

Replace existing ADF with new or refurbished ADF
Replace clock with new digital unit
Wing leveler functions treated as optional

Option B: Full Garmin Panel - $16,734.00

Garmin 340 Audio Panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
Garmin SL-30 NAV/Comm
Garmin GTX-327 Transponder
Replace clock with new digital unit

Option C: Partial Garmin Panel - $14,949.00

Garmin 340 Audio Panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
Garmin SL-30 NAV/Comm
Keep Existing AT-50 Transponder

Option C: Garmin/Narco Panel - $13,001.00

Garmin 340 Audio Panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
New Narco NAV-122
Keep existing MX-11R Radio
Keep existing AT-50 Transponder

Option D: Garmin/Narco Panel - $11,441.00

Keep existing Audio panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
New Narco NAV-122
Keep existing MX-11R Radio
Keep existing AT-50 Transponder

Option E: Garmin/Val Panel - $10,284.00

Keep existing Audio panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
New VAL Nav unit
Keep existing MX-11R Radio
Keep existing AT-50 Transponder

Option F: Garmin/Repair current Nav - $8,679.00

Keep existing Audio panel
Garmin 430 GPS/NAV/Comm
Repair existing Narco Nav 12
Keep existing MX-11R Radio
Keep existing AT-50 Transponder

Fruitful discussions followed John's presentation and all members weighed in with their thoughts. Many options were laid out regarding cost per member based on 7 or 8 members. All costs were included including the effect of monthly GPS updates.

A motion was made to move forward with option C. With the addition of an 8th member, the cost per member would be $735. The motion was seconded and was passed by a vote of 7 for and 0 against.

Agenda Item 3: Cylinder Compression

Discussion was held on the status of the cylinder compression. John presented data that showed that Cylinders 1 and 3 were about 60 PSI each. John showed a cylinder assembly from TITAN for $880.00. This assembly is new with all new components and all you do is completely replace the cylinder assembly with this one. The general feeling around the room was that this would be the way to go when the time came. No motion was made at this time. At the upcoming annual inspection, we will see if the compression test results require the cylinders to be overhauled/replaced.

Agenda item 4: Bylaw Changes

Proposed changes to the bylaws were presented. Discussion was held and everyone had an understanding of what was to change and why. A motion was made and seconded to accept the bylaw changes as presented. The motion passed with 7 votes for and 0 against.

Agenda Item 5: Adding an 8th member

A motion to add an 8th member was made and seconded. The motion passed with 7 votes for and 0 against.

Updated Decision on Avionics Upgrade - by John

Subsequent to the meeting, a revised proposal for Option B defined above was submitted for review. The revised proposal had lower prices and assumed $1000 for selling our existing avionics. The revised option B cost per member would be approximately $817 per member. All the members voted by email to go with the revised option B.

Revised St Louis Class B Airspace - by John

The Class B airspace around Lambert-St. Louis International Airport will be revised to address the new runway on April 13th. The ceiling of the airspace will remain at 8,000 feet msl but the floors will lower in four areas reducing the airspace to use when flying around Lambert. The main change is a new lower floor of 1700 ft (Area B) over Creve Coeur (1H0) and St Charles (3SQ) instead of the current floor of 2000 ft. There is also a lower floor (Area D) south of HWY 40 (will be 2500 ft instead of current 3000 ft). Northwest and Southeast of Lambert, there are new transition areas (Areas F) that lower the floor from 5,000 ft down to 3,500 ft. The current St Louis Class B Chart doesn't expire until 6 July 2006 so I am not sure if they will issue a special revision before then. A copy of the new airspace regulation is available at www.aopa.org.

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