"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 27 April 2011

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

Aprils has been a rough month for flying weather but we still managed to double the flying hours from March. Hopefully the rain slows down and we get some better flying weather in May.

Mike Warakomski is working to set up the next club meeting. If you haven't, please respond to Mike and let him know what dates you can attend.

As approved in the last club meeting, John installed the Rosen Sun Visors in N20843 this weekend. The winch was also installed in the Cessna hangar this weekend which should make it much easier to push the plane back. As soon as the ramp dries out, we plan to paint the main wheel guide lines to help keep the plane on track while it is pulled back into the hangar. The instruction for using the winch are keep in the "Cessna Manuals" area on the website.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Fuel prices remained relatively stable this month, dropping slightly and resulting in a small decrease in the flight rates; C172 time in April was $67 per hour, and Arrow time was $90 per hour. Flight hours for the two planes were around 10 and 13 hours, respectively.

Our current adjusted treasury balance is about $1,500 below our current target balance at this point; however, available cash remains strong. We had two financial transactions of note this past month: John purchased the Rosen visors for the C172, with Improvement Funds used for the purchase; and Todd paid the Use Tax on the Arrow (this tax is the equivalent of sales tax on the aircraft purchase, since we purchased the plane from out-of-state), and this was funded from the Arrow equity fund.

This transaction completes the original Arrow expected expenses. Total expenses when we planned the purchase were estimated at $101,400. Our actual spend was $102,701.85, for a difference of $1,301.85, or $108.50 per full member (a variance to budget of less than 1.3%). The negative Equity balance is not a concern, as we have Arrow escrow funds that easily cover the shortfall. We will carry the negative equity balance in the Arrow equity fund until we have a member upgrade from Limited to Full, at which point we can close the equity fund.

There were a few omissions on the March statement for flights and payments; those should all have been corrected on this statement, apologies for any inconveniences.

Mike

Maintenance - by John

N20843

Oil Filler Tube - The oil filler tube and the lower RH cowl shock mount (J-7444-14) were replaced on 1 April.
Oil Change - The oil was changed on 8 April and 8 quarts of Phillips XC 20W50 oil, 1 container of Camgaurd, and a new oil filter were installed. The next oil change is due at tach time 4677 or August 2011.
Rosen Sun Visor - The new sun visors approved at the last club meeting were installed on 23 April and look great as shown below.
Stall Warning Horn - During a recent flight, the stall warning horn did not work while practicing numerous stalls. Troubleshooting found that the warning horn reed failed and a new reed was installed on 27 April.

N2242N

Rosen Visor - The Rosen visor mount was tightened and the tension screws adjusted on 23 April to allow the visor to move more smoothly and hold in position.

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