St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 27 April 2007

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

I have been traveling a lot and have not had much time to fly. Hopefully I can get up before the plane goes to Tennessee for paint in a few weeks.

Thanks to John and Charlie for servicing the strut, changing the landing light and replacing the worn baffle seal material. This will help reduce work needed during the upcoming annual inspection.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

The April billing statement includes an $800 per member assessment to cover the costs of repainting the airplane. We should have sufficient funds available in the Iimprovement Fund and Engine Fund to cover the initial outlay for the other improvements approved at the annual meeting (WAAS upgrade and engine pre-heater). After we implement those improvements, we will review our financial position with all club members and determine whether additional assessments are desired to restore those funds to prior levels.

An adjustment was made to the March billing statement, and a revised statement has been posted. This corrected an error in the calculation of funds transferred into the engine fund. If anyone is interested in the specifics of the change, please let me know and I'll be glad to take you though it.

Fuel prices at JetCorp have been holding relatively steady, allowing us to keep the hourly rate at $58. Fuel charges were transitioned from a personal credit card to a club credit card on file with JetCorp, and we had a reprieve in expenses for fuel in this billing cycle. Alas, the bill showed up soon after the finances were completed for this statement, so we'll get to pay for fuel starting again next month.

I'd like to confirm the hourly fuel burn based upon flight hours and fuel purchases, so please remember to note in the log book any requests for fuel. It would be helpful if you could note the fuel request as being either "before" or "after" your flight, just to aid a bit in the accuracy of the calculations.

Mike

Maintenance - by John

Annual Inspection - I plan to do the annual at the shadeport the weekend of 12-13 May. In addition to the inspection, we will need to replace the right main tire and both main wheel brake pads. If you can help out that weekend, please let me know.

WAAS Upgrade - We plan to remove the GNS-430 on 9 May and send it in for the WAAS Upgrade and new WAAS Antenna. It needs to arrive at Garmin by 15 May. The Form 337 and Flight Manual Supplement for the revised installation are in work.

Paint - I plan to fly the plane down to Tennessee Wings on the 17th or 18th of May. I will either get a ride back from PIC in his RV-6 or use frequent flyer miles on a flight from Memphis to St Louis.

Cowl Plug - The birds are back and trying to build a nest again. I tied a "remove before flight" streamer to a towel that plugs up the entrance around the nose gear to the cowl area. There is another towel that plugs another opening. Don't forget to remove the towels before flight.

New Baffling Seals/Strut Servicing - Charley and I replaced the baffling seals to the upper cowl. The old material was getting weak and letting airflow past the seals. We also serviced the nose strut.

Oil Analysis - We received the oil analysis results from the oil change on 21 March shown as sample 22 below. There was a decrease in most readings and all the values are well within normal ranges. The affect of using Avblend is shown starting with sample 11 below.

Oil Contaminants

Sample Date Hours Alum Iron Copper Nickel Chrome Silicon

1 9-Aug-96 50 18 47 4 4 156 6

2 30-Oct-97 54 16 52 4 4 204 3

3 19-Jun-98 47 18 51 1 4 160 10

4 23-Oct-98 45 12 39 4 5 219 5

5 15-Apr-99 31 11 39 3 5 145 8

6 15-Aug-99 60 12 45 3 8 287 8

7 15-Apr-00 52 13 45 4 8 207 8

8 19-Aug-00 50 13 45 5 6 207 6

9 10-Feb-01 54 14 46 5 5 116 7

10 7-July-01 56 13 57 3 6 124 13

11 26-Oct-01 45 10 44 3 4 83 14

12 28-Apr-02 57 14 56 3 8 165 4

13 15-Mar-03 55 12 56 3 7 108 6

14 23-Jul-03 50 12 56 3 6 112 3

15 31-Dec-03 58 16 28 3 3 57 10
16 25-Jul-04 49 12 31.6 3.2 2 54 5

17 20-Feb-05 41 12 26.9 6.2 9 36 8

18 6-Aug-05 54 10 22 4.4 4 32 7

19 13-May-06 40 10 35 3.9 5 46 5

20 6-Aug-06 37 7 33.5 3.1 4 31 8

21 28-Oct-06 44 8 42.3 2.9 6 39 7

22 21-Mar-07 53 8 24.6 2.2 3 25 7

...