St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 June 2001

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

We had some issues with the alternator wiring and over-volt light this month and I want to thank John, Randy and Marlin for their efforts in fixing both problems.

On June 18th, our insurance coverage moved to AVEMCO with a sutantially lower rate. See the following article for the latest information on the insurance and the treasury section for the impact to our monthly dues. It will sure be nice to see them going the opposite direction.

Lastly, I am involved with a recently won program (C-130Avionics Modernization Program) in Southern California and am spending too much time away from home. Please have the meeting without me if you can get together. I certainly encourage you to vote for new members. I certainly have no issues with someone else being president.

Happy Landings!
Pic

Insurance Status - by Todd Michal

Effective June 18 at 12:00:01 AM, the clubs insurance coverage changed to the AVEMCO Insurance Company. Our liability coverage is for $100,000 per person, $1,000,000 per accident. The aircraft is covered at $49,250 with a $200 deductible for both non-moving and in motion incidents. The premium is $2530 per year which is $1275 less than than what we are currently paying.

Once I get the new policy, I will work with John to get the policy information posted on the web site.

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

We started our new insurance policy with AVEMCO, and cancelled the policy we had with NationAir. NationAir will be sending a refund for the remainder of the premium, minus a 10% penalty. The 10 months that were remaining should give us about $2850 back, which is $320 more than the new insurance for a full year. If we get the expected refund, the Adjust Treasury is actually around $864, which is great for this time of year.

Since we didn't have the cash in the checking account to cover the insurance, I paid it with a credit card, and will write a check to myself from the club when the refund arrives. We also had the option of paying it a quarter at a time, but there would have been a $15 service fee for that.

The new insurance will be due in June each year. Since it will no longer be the same month as the Annual, it will help with the cash flow. It was a lot to pay the Annual and insurance in the same month.

The dues should also be reduced next month. It looks like the monthly expenses will be about $58/person, so the dues will probably be reduced from the current $85 back to $70 (the temporary additional $10 is remaining until voted otherwise).

   Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

We had a few problems with the alternator wiring and the overvolt light this month. The first problem was caused by an alternator wire pulling out of a wire terminal causing loss of altenator power and the overvolt light to come on. The alternator wire was reterminated and the system checked out OK.

Two flights later, during a control travel check prior to takeoff, the control system snagged the overvolt system wiring behind the panel and pulled the wires out of the overvolt light, causing a short in the sytem. The overvolt light and voltage regulator were replaced and the wires tied back to assure clearance with the control system.

   Induction Fires and Engine Priming - by John Heilmann

Back in my early days of flying (Nov1974), I was taking a date on a flight around St Louis. The plane was a little difficult to start in the cold weather and after a few minutes of trying, I noticed a number of people running in our direction. At first, I thought they were some friends trying to give me a hard time, but after I noticed they were carrying fire extinquishers, I new something was wrong. I had an induction fire! After putting out the fire and switching planes, I continued on my flight with a somewhat nervous date.

Induction fires are a relatively common occurance, especially during the winter months when engines are generaly more difficult to start. An induction fire occurs when an engine backfires during start and ignites fuel that has drained down ino the air intake duct between the carburetor and airfilter. How does the fuel get into the intake duct? - improper priming during engine start. It's 100% pilot error (although in my case it must have been a leaking fuel line) and, as such, 100% preventable!

The throttle should never be used as a primer. Aircraft carburetors are generally mounted on the bottom side of the engine. Pumping the throttle injects fuel into the throat of the carburetor. Without the suction from a rotating engine, gravity pulls the fuel down into the air intake duct between the carburetor and air filter. This duct is made of a flexible plastic outer shell. A wire spiral runs inside it for support, and a paper inner lining is used to hold the wire in place. If the engine backfires during start, the accumulated fuel can ignite the paper lining and burn a hole through the duct and spill burning fuel into the engine compartment. One of the problems with an induction fire is that you can't see the fire when you are sitting in the cockpit. Unless you have assistance from personnel on the ground like I did, the fire can progress unnoticed until you can smell or see the fire.

Excessive priming can have the same result. The primer injects fuel into the intake manifold near the intake valve. With normal priming the fuel will remain there. However, excessive priming could cause fuel to run back down through the throat of the carburetor and accumulate in the intake duct. The Cessna 172M POH says to: Prime as required (2 strokes in warm weather to 6 strokes in cold weather; none if engine is warm).

Everyone has their own slightly different technique for priming and starting engines. The key lesson I learned from my experience is not to pump the throttle when the engine (propeller) is not turning.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

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• Private Pilot Questions
• FAA Instrument Test Questions

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