St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 18 July 1993

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

This has not been a good month for the 172. This past Tuesday night, July 13, a front came thru with alot of convective activity and damaged the plane. Apparently the plane lifted off the ground, because of the intensity of the headwinds, jumped over the wheel chocks, weathervaned to the left, and the left aileron smashed into the beam supporting the hangar roof. I am working with Spirit Aviation Services to repair the plane. They provided an estimate of $600 to replace the aileron, check out the controls and rig them. There is a $100 deductible. I have taken pictures and am sending a letter off to the insurance company to get things moving. Hopefully the plane will be up by July 27.

Whlle I was checking the status of the plane with Aviation Services, the owner told me that he was preparing for flooding at Spirit. Apparently, management is alerting companies based on the field that there exists the potential for the river crest to be over the levees or for the levees to fail. Not much we can do at the present. The 3 options are: find an aileron fast and slap it on so we can fly it out; pound out the damage, get a ferry permit, and fly it out, or place bets that the water won't reach anything vital or if it does, cash in on the insurance. Right now my thoughts are to go with the last option. Stay tuned!

The vacuum pump crapped out this month. Chuck Zimmerman troubleshot it and found a broken gear. I ordered a rebuilt one and Chuck installed it and everything is great. The rebuilt one was $180 with a $100 core charge. I just sent back the core.

No news on another member. I got one phone call from someone who saw the ad on the plane and I sent hlm info. He has not recontacted me.

No news on the appeal.

I haven't set a meeting date yet until the plane is repaired and the threat of a flood goes away.

I did manage to fly above the flood areas before the FAA instituted their no fly zone. The Mississippi was immediately north of Highway 70 in St. Charles. It had grown a couple miles in width. It makes navigating interesting. Make sure you stay in contact with ATC (Spirit Tower, Approach, or something) lf you are going to fly within 3 miles of the Missouri or Mississippi, below 3,000'.

I have sent out a revised member roster. Chuck Zimmerman's and Leonard Newmark's home phone numbers have changed.

Happy Landings,

Mike Piccirilli

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