| St Louis Flying Club |
I hope you've had a chance to fly recently, the weather has been great! I finally got up this past weekend.
I'd like to thank John Heilmann for making a new set of chocks. They are really bright! I'd also like to thank Randy for his efforts in fixing the PTT switch and getting quotes for resolving the transponder problem.
We received a second application via the web site. This person's experience was a little below our requirements but I encouraged him to reapply when he built up his time.
Happy Landings, PIC
From The Treasurer - From Marlin Sipe
We are somewhat behind on funds for the Annual inspection, but not too bad. Last year, the inspection was $615, and the year before it was $830. I use $800 as what we would like to have saved for the Inspection. We are currently about $200 behind (after repair of the PTT switch), but I am guessing we will reduce that by maybe $100 next month because we just had a good flying month. If we do come up short, we will each pay 1/7 of the shortage to get us back to even to start the new year.
Maintenance Corner - From Marlin Sipe
As you saw in email, the transponder Mode-C is giving us problems again. The history is that maybe a couple years ago it was intermittent, failing after an hour or 2 of use. We bought a new altitude encoder, but that wasn't the problem. The transponder was then returned to the manufacturer and overhauled, which fixed the problem. The Mode-C is required to fly in the St. Louis area, and it's really needed for IFR flight, so we need to get it taken care of. Based on the price in Randy's email, a new one will cost each of us maybe $200 with installation, minus what we can get for selling our altitude encoders (we actually have 2 functional units).
The yoke-mounted push-to-talk switch is being repaired. Mueller Avionics is estimating about $50 to wire it in correctly, getting rid of the dangling Y-adapter that has been giving us problems. Just directly plug in your headphones or intercom.
Just a reminder that the Annual is due next month (April). I think Randy is leaning towards doing it at C&D at St. Charles again. It would be nice to have help from the members. We get a discount for doing the grunt work (turning screws, removing interior, etc.), and it's good experience seeing what's on the inside. I spent the weekend out there the last 2 years, and will probably be there again. We had a good turnout from the rest of the members last year too. If everything goes well, it can be done in a weekend.
The online scheduling system has been in operation for two weeks and looks to be working OK with no issues to report.
After Marlins problem with the transponder, he asked if we could come up with a "Maintenance Page" on the website so that everyone could be informed of a problem. One way to do this would be to use the interactive schedule since everyone can add information to the schedule. When you complete a flight and there is a maintenance problem, edit the plane reservation info for that flight and replace it with a maintenance notice. I tried it using Marlins flight on March 6th as an example. The message can be colored red to flag everyone that there is a maintenance problem. Whenever the problem is fixed, this information can also be posted (and maybe colored green). The pull down message gives plenty of room to describe the problem in detail. Whenever anyone goes in to look at the schedule, they can see if there are any open problems. Another way would be to send an Email to everyone (use the link on the members page) with details of the problem.
What do you think?
PAST NEWSLETTERS
February 2000