St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 22 Aug 2008

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

Thanks to John and Mike McBride for troubleshooting and fixing the landing light this week. Some oxidation formed on the light terminals and prevented the light from working. Other than that, the plane has been working great and with the cooler weather coming up, we should get a lot of flying in over the next several months.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Medical Deferred by Breakfast - by John

I went to renew my medical at the end of July and my Doctor had an opening for an 8:50 am appointment. I typically go to a late afternoon appointment but thought it would be nice to have breakfast with my wife before the visit. I had a glass of orange juice and frosted flakes (with a little extra sugar), a good, healthy breakfast. I went to the doctors and everything went well until the nurse brought in the urine test results and said I had too much glucose (sugar) in my urine. The doctor said he had to report this to the FAA and would not be able to renew my medical. I told him I had orange juice and frosted flakes with sugar just before the test but he said that it would not make any difference. The FAA is concerned that sugar in your urine is a sign of diabetes which can cause damage to your eyes and other organs if not controlled. It was now up to the FAA. After 3 weeks of waiting, the FAA sent a letter saying they needed me to take a hemoglobin A1c test that gives a 3 month average of your blood sugar. They also want a full report from my doctor on any complications and if I do need to take oral medication to control the diabetes, I need to wait 60 days to show the medication controls the condition. After I send all of this into the FAA, I have to wait until the FAA issues me a medical.

I went to my normal doctor after going to the AME and took a blood and urine test and everything is fine, I do not have diabetes.

The lesson here is do not eat breakfast with your wife. In the future, I will not eat or drink anything for about 8 hours before I go for a medical. It is not worth the risk of tripping the sugar in the urine test and getting the FAA in the picture. It will probably take me 2 months to get my medical issued just because I had a nice breakfast with my wife

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Flying hours were strong this past month, with 18 hours logged on N20843. Fuel prices have come down about $0.20 per gallon (current JetDirect retail price is $6.35), and the flight rate is down to $71 per tach hour based on 8.2 GPH consumption.

The club treasury this month is at $560, and adjusted treasury ended the period at ($440). The difference between these two figures is the amount of outstanding member credits we have, prior to factoring in flight time for the month. Because of the new fuel reimbursement policy, plus some cross country trips, we're seeing more member credits on a monthly basis. These credits are offset by charges for flight hours on the bill, but the adjusted treasury does not take those flight charges into account. I believe this is a new phenomenon, since fuel charges in the past were normally incurred on the club card, and those charges showed as direct fuel expenses in the same month during which we got payment for the flight hours. In short, I believe that the current calculation of "adjusted treasury" may not be the best representation of our financial position, but I have not yet come up with an alternative calculation that is more appropriate! I'll keep on working on it, please let me know if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Hope everyone continues to enjoy the great flying weather we've been having.

Fly safely!

Mike

Maintenance - by John

Oil Analysis - We received the oil analysis results from the oil change on 22 July shown as sample 25 below. There was a decrease in most readings but 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

23 19-Nov-07 45 14 36.6 3.2 3 34 7

24 4-May-08 44 8 17.6 2.7 2 21 10

25 22-Jul-08 51 6 19.3 2.5 3 21 10

...