St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 18 July 2001

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

It was good seeing you all at the annual meeting and I enjoyed the discussions we had. We realized how quick the airplane can be washed when we have 4 or 5 guys helping out!! John has included the minutes of the meeting in the newsletter.

The results of the oil analysis are shown in the maintenance Section. All readings are normal indicating that everything is well.

For those that weren't there after the meeting, we had an automotive touch-up expert come out to give us an estimate on the airplane. I believe is was $500 to touch up the cowling, wheel pants, and leading edge. I have tried to find the type and description of the paint in my records but came up blank. I called Mario at Aerotech, the original painter, and he has our colors in stock! He said if I bring in some empty paint cans (pint size) he will fill them with our colors. The cost would be a case of beer! I'm not positive when I can get by there but I will do it within the month!

Happy Landings!
Pic

   Club Meeting Minutes - by John Heilmann

On Saturday, July7, 2001, members of the St. Louis Flying Club held their annual meeting at the Jet Corp Conference room at the Spirit of St Louis Airport. In attendance were Mike Piccirilli, Todd Michal, Randy Skyles, John Heilmann, Mike Russell and Jeff Schubert.

TREASURER'S REPORT

Mike Piccirilli called the meeting to order and gave the treasurer's report. With the return of the insurance refund from Nationair, the club is in good financial condition. The treasury balance currently stands at $1,050. With the lower insurance premiums through Avemco, the monthly dues will be lowered back to $70.00 per month. The breakdown of the dues is as follows:

MAINTENANCE REPORT

Randy discussed the following maintenance issues:

• Aircraft Painting - Randy met John N. who works for Colors Express. John details cars and gave us an estimate of $500 dollars to touch up the aircraft (we provide the paint).
• Door Latch - The problem with the pilots inside door latch was discussed. If the door is not completely closed, it is possible to overload the latch push rod causing a failure of the rod. When closing the door latch, it should close easily with only finger pressure. If it takes any additional pressure, the door is probably not closed completely and should be reshut. Randy repaired the pushrod and the door latch is working again.
• Filler Cap Gasket - The filler cap gasket was installed. We paid for the gasket at the last annual but it had not been installed yet.
• Mike Jack - The loose hand mike Jack was fixed. It is in an akward location and is sometimes bumped by the co-pilots leg which causes it to loosen over time.
• Radio Problems - Todd reported that he had radio problems on his trip to kansas as follows: The radios worked well for most of the trip. The squelch on the number one radio needs to be adjusted. (it looks like it just uses a little screw driver or an allen wrench but I didn't have one with me). There were several times when I was handed off to a new controller and was unable to hear them on the number one radio. I could recieve their transmissions fine on the number two radio. As I got closer to the ground transmission, I started picking up reception on the number one radio. Towards the end of my flight on the way out, my transmissions on the number two radio started to cause the microphone to stick. When I would switch back to transmitting on radio #1 I had no trouble. This is similar to the problems I had last year on my trip to Columbus. It only seems to happen when the radios have been on for a long time (heat related?).

  The club members discussed possible options and decided to swap number 1 and 2 radio postions and see if radio operations improve. If the number 1 radio does not work any better in the number 2 spot, we will send it into Narco for repair.

• AVBlend Oil Additive - Randy recommended we add a can of AVBlend when we change the oil. AVBlend gets in the cerechrome lining of the cylinders and improves lubrication during startup. The club voted to start with the next oil change.
• VOR #1 - Todd reported that the #1 VOR was more than one mile off during a VOR approach to Alton. A VOT check indicated it was off by 4 deg which is within the acceptable tolerance. The members agreed to make every one aware of the mis-alignment and watch to see if it gets worse. If it gets any worse than we would have it re-aligned.
• Gas Discount - Randy reported that we ge a discount on gas at C&D aviation since we do maintenance there.

COST EFFECTIVENESS OF FLYING CLUBS

Jeff presented a Cost Effectiveness Spreadsheet showing the cost effectiveness in belonging to a flying club as opposed to sole ownership or rental. You can adjust the assumptions and see how various changes impact our costs.

ELECTION OF OFFICERS

The next item of business was to elect officers for the coming year. The new club officers as approved by the present members are:

• President: Mike Piccirilli
• Vice President: Todd Michal
• Secretary: John Heilmann
• Treasurer: Marlin Sipe
• Maintenance: Randy Skyles
• Scheduling: John Heilmann
• Social: Jeff Schubert

AIRCRAFT IMPROVEMENTS

A proposal was made to install a panel mounted intercom with mic/phone jacks at each seat. The cost of the intercom would be approximately $200.00. The consenus was to add this to the list of other aircraft improvements previously discussed at the October 2000 meeting and have the members provide input on their top priority improvements. Please fill in the following information to indicate what improvements you are most interested in. Further investigation will be done on the top priorities to get more details and an accurate price before obtaining final club member approval.

   Insurance Update - by Todd Michal

The Avemco insurance policy coverage details are now online and accessable by the "Club Insurance" button on the members page. The Avemco Direct Approach Insurance Policy has a number of coverage differences that are highlighted below:

POLICY FEATURES

• If someone is injured in a plane you sold and they sue you, Avemco's extended liability coverage provides up to one year's protection, even after your policy expires or you cancel it.
• Rental of your aircraft to named pilots is permitted (it will not be considered a commercial operation).
• We pay for your legal defense, up to $5,000, if an FAA pilot certificate enforcement or civil penalty action is brought against you as a result of a covered accident or loss.
• Medical expense coverage, if purchased, includes payment of $100 each day if you're hospitalized, up to the policy limits, in addiion to your medical bills.
• Avemco's policy is written in "easy read" format.
• Your Avemco insurance remains valid even if your medical certificate, flight review, or annal inspection accidentally lapses
• We insure pilots regardless of age who meet general underwriting requirements.

COVERAGE FEATURES Aircraft Damage (Hull) Coverage

• Zero deductible for loss due to fire, lightening, explosure, or a total loss.
• If you've purchased in-flight hull coverage, we pay to retrieve you aircraft after an off-airport landing, even if your aircraft isn't damaged.
• We base total loss payment on the insured value, not a "Blue Book" or actual cash value.
• A hull premium discount applies if your aircraft is kept in a hanger.
• We give discounts for "claim-free" experience.

AIRCRAFT LIABILITY COVERAGE

• Non-Owner liability coverage includes coverage for damage to non-owned aircraft to the extent of the hull coverage you purchase for your aircraft.
• Coverage is provided for liability arising out of the use of the area which you rent to partk, tie-down or store your aircraft.
• $25,000 liability coverage is provided for damage to rented or leased hangars.
• When you add or replace aircrft, up to 30 days coverage is automatically provided.
• We pay up to $1,000 for damage to passengers' personal effects.

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

We received the insurance refund, which turned out to be slightly more than anticipated. I also wrote a club check to myself for $2200 (shown as a negative payment), as a partial refund of my credit for paying the new insurance. I'll just fly off the rest of the credit.

We now have about $1000 available for maintenance, which is great for this time of year.

Just a minor note... I changed the yearly amounts for insurance and tax to values evenly divisible by 12, to avoid rounding.

Medical/BFR Status - by Todd Michal

I will begin informing members via the newsletter one month prior to the expiration of their BFR and/or Medical certificates. To make this work, I will need everyone to inform me when they get a new BFR or Medical. I will assume that everyone's medical will expire two years after the last examination date (i.e. third class medical certificate and over the age of 40).

According to my records Mike Piccirilli, Randy, and Marlin all have expired medical certificates as of June 2001. Everyone's BFR is current. There are no upcoming expirations during the month of August.

   Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

Owner Advisory - We received Owner Advisory number SEB01-6A from Cessna which "requires" an inspection of the ignition switch terminal board for a loose center ground terminal if it was shipped as a replacement part from Cessna between January 1, 1996 through January 19, 2001. It has been determined that some ignition switch terminal boards may have a loose center ground terminal. The ignition switch terminal board should be inspected and replaced if required. Compliance is recommended and should be accomplished within the next 100 hours of operation or 1 months, whichever occurs first. We will check the records but do not beleive we replaced the affected part in the time frame specified.

Oil Analysis - The Oil Analysis results from the oil change on July 7th were received and are shown below. All the values were reported as normal. The values in the graph are normalized to 50 hours between oil changes and divided as indicated to fit in the value scale.

Additional Maintenance information is provided as part of the Club Meeting Minutes below.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot and Instrument Rating Written Test by taking a quick 10 question test. Submit your answers and you will receive the correct answers and your score. (Don't worry, only you see the test results and your score.) This is a quick and easy way to keep familiar with the FARs. Use the links below and try to get a 100%:

• Private Pilot Questions
• FAA Instrument Test Questions

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