St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 19 July 1992

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

I want to thank Chuck, C.J. and Emerson for joining me in doing the oil change on June 28. We took an oil sample and had it analyzed. The oil looked fine. A copy of the analysis is enclosed.

I finally received a response from St. Louis County but it wasn't any big news! See the enclosed letter. Seems like they are determined to fight it out in court. Charlie tells me the next possible court date is in September.

I received a notice from the insurance company stating that the deductible will be reduced and other benefits will be increased if members take advantage of FAA refresher training yearly, in addition to the Biennial Flight Review. A copy of the notice is enclosed. Sounds like a good idea that each member would be wise to take advantage of.

I finally bit the bullet and took the plane over to Alton to have the turn coordinator and auto-pilot bench-checked. The turn coordinator had a broken wire which was fixed. They reported the unit was operable but made noise (nearing the end of its useful life, a replacement would be $275 to $435). The auto-pilot, both the control panel computer and the servo mechanism in the wing, checked out flne. The problem is in the aircraft wiring! I wonder if this is another hidden damage from the accident, the servo is located in the right wing (the wing that was replaced)! I decided to keep using the turn coordinator "as is" and see how long it lasts. I will install it in the coming week. I also decided to have the club members "troubleshoot" the auto-pilot wiring during the annual. Premier (the Alton FBO) wanted $49/hr to troubleshoot the wiring, they estimated 4 man-hours.

John called Premier and got the price for installing a II Morrow LORAN (with CDI and auto-pilot output) at between $2100-2200. Thanks for the effort John, food for thought.

Charlie sent me pictures of Bill Wagner's party at Blayney's. Pictures are enclosed for those who attended.

Those of you who have been flying might have noticed that the construction is beglnnlng for the new T-hangers and shade hangers. I expect to be getting a call soon from Spirit Airport confirming our interest in moving to a shade hanger. The price would be $100/month or about $65 more than we are currently spending (about $9.50 more per month per member). I'm for it because I think its a disgrace to let the sun and the elements continue to beat up the plane. Please let me know your thoughts when you send me your next check. The majority opinion will rule. As far as I know, members would have to push the plane back into the shade hanger.

At our club meeting in April, it was decided to see what the plane utilization was before actively pursuing getting another member. In those three months, we have flown 29 hours, less than 10 hours a month. There's no doubt in my mind that an eighth member (and the paint job and window replacement) would not significantly affect a member's utilizatlon of the plane, but would benefit all the member's pride of ownership and ease of selling their share, whenever that time may come. Because of the above, I will be putting up posters advertising the availability of another share for $4,000 and asking you to let me know of anyone who might be interested. Of course, the addition of the eighth member is subject to rules in our constitution and requires a vote by all members. Note: A shade hanger would only require dues to increase by $4 if we had 8 members.

Last, but not least, Emerson was written up in the Sunday Post Dispatch Magazine about 3 weeks ago. Hope you saw it or can get your hands on a copy. Congratulations, Emerson! I'm going to the library to take a look.

Happy Landings,

Mike Piccirilli

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