"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 20 August 2002

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

Per my promise at the last club meeting, here is the status on the interior. I did a more thorough cost analysis between the 2 interior suppliers, Airtex and Hangar Bay. In the attached chart you'll see that Hangar Bay is $500 cheaper for the major elements. However, there are differences in the end products.

Item	Airtex	Hanger Bay	Comments
Seats (2 tone, Premium fabrics)	$1,144	$899	Airtex will have pockets in back of the front seats; Hanger Bay has no pockets
Side Panels (2 tone w/carpet on the bottom)	$741	$549
Carpet	$291	$229	Airtex has "wear pads" integrated w/carpet; Hanger Bay does not
Headliner	$56	$50
Total	$2,232	$1,727

The materials are comparable though Airtex does have more options available than does Hangar Bay (I believe we can find suitable colors with Hangar Bay). The major items that we would give up with the Hangar Bay option are the pockets on the back of the front seats and the wear pads integrated with the carpets. While these aren't "drop dead" items, I need each of your votes on which way you prefer for the cost. Possible alternatives are to buy complementary floor mats and some kind of seat back organizer to carry our "log", fuel strainer, sick sacs, etc.

I am still doing more research on colors. I have purchased some materials to repair/refurbish/paint the interior plastic and metal. The spray paint specifically made for interior plastic does not come in the shades I hoped for. I need to do more research and shopping. Hopefully, I can present my selection for colors next month.

The single shoulder harness belts have also been a pain. They are Cessna specific and no one sells replacements. I have found the manufacturer who will reweb the belts with a wide variety of colors but we would need to send the existing belts to them. The turn around time is about 10 days. I can wait to do this during the dead of winter.

The headliner is another matter. I thought we could buy Airtex's headliner ($300) in a similar color to what we currently have, rip off the old, and glue on the new. Unfortunately, since our C-172's year has a plastic headliner they don't sell a headliner for it. But they will sell the fabric for a lot less ($15/yd by 60"). I will call them next week to see what issues I will get into in trying to install the fabric on top of the plastic headliner. The other issue is taking out the headliner to make the repairs. It looks like all the interior plastic pieces around the windows need to be removed to take out the headliner. Not a "big" deal but one which will require the airplane to be down for a while. Perhaps we can do this the same time as the intercom/cooling fan work.

I have received 2 more applications for the club. That makes a total of 9 on our waiting list. Though I don't know how many are still interested or would really be interested, it is nice to have a waiting list.

Thanks to all who responded to my "interesting proposal" note. Unfortunately the RV-6 was sold before I even got my note out to you all.

Happy Landings!
Pic

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

As of the statement, the oil change is due in 3.4 hours. Pic flew since then, and I'm probably taking a trip this weekend. So, we'll need to get out there sometime soon and do an oil change.

The Adjusted Treasury dropped about $744 this month, but considering that includes the purchase of the new Comm radio ($835), it actually gained some ground this month.

For the Engine fund, instead of counting the $10/hour in the month it is flown, I am now counting it the following month, when the time is paid for. Putting money in the Engine fund in the same month it is paid will keep it from causing the Adjusted Treasury to bounce around. Note that this change means the statement does not show anything going into the fund this month, because last month's flight time was already included there.

Maintenance - by John Heilmann

Maintenance Actions - We are hoping to move the airplane to the hanger in St Charles County airport on Friday, Sept 6 and install the intercom unit and new MX-11R radio. It will probably take most of the weekend and possibly longer to do. We will also try to install the cooling fan if we can work out an acceptable installation. I contacted an avionics shop and told them about our MX-11R radio issues and asked them what they recommended. Here is their response:

The radios in your aircraft do not have a way to force cooling air inside the units. All you can do is install a fan and have the air flow to the outside of the racks, this may help some but I doubt if it will cure the existing problem with the radio. This is a common problem with the MX-11R. I'd recommend sending the radio back to the manufacture for repair.

More information on the intercom installation effort will be sent by email as details are firmed up.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot and Instrument Rating Written Test by taking a quick 10 question test. Submit your answers and you will receive the correct answers and your score. (Don't worry, only you see the test results and your score.) This is a quick and easy way to keep familiar with the FARs. Use the links below and try to get a 100%:

The links above take you to Kip's FAA written Test Preparation Site. This site can be found directly at: http://w3.one.net/~kip/faatest.html

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