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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 30 August 2018

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

Hopefully most of you have been able to get out to the hangar to at least see N202CR by now. It is a great looking aircraft and 5 of our 23 members have already completed their checkouts while others are still transitioning. Several cross country trips have been completed and we have logged over 40 flight hours since acquiring the plane. The comprehensive 2-axis autopilot is working flawlessly and has demonstrated coupled instrument approach capability. Cruise speed at 3,000 feet was measured at 152 knots true, so it is meeting or exceeding our expectations. Both Pic and John Housley have been actively checking people out in the RV and have a great routine established.

A huge thanks to John Housley, Pic, Steve Heidenreich, John Heilmann and Larry Wehrman who have spent countless hours getting to know the RV. These guys have spent time getting to know the aircrafts systems, making minor repairs, developing checklists, a POH and operating standards to be used by club members during checkouts and beyond. You guys investing your time and experience has enabled us to get N202CR online quickly and with high quality training for our members.

As you will recall, we agreed at our meeting that we would add a member and then develop a proposal to pay for the shortfall for the purchase of the RV. I will have an email vote out shortly regarding our recommendation for covering the shortfall. I also expect to have a recommendation out shortly for the addition of a member, if you know of a good candidate please have them fill out an application for membership.

T.J. organized our first club social in quite a while which was held on August 16th. It was a great gathering that was well attended and provided a time for camaraderie, swapping stories and getting to know each other. T.J. has offered to organize these socials on the third Thursday of each month at the hangar starting about 6:00 until whenever. Currently, the dates remaining this year are September 20thand October 18th. T.J.’s only rule is that we do not discuss club business, I think we managed to do that at the first get together! Be sure to mark your calendar for next month’s gathering and a huge thank you to T.J. for taking the initiative to set these up.

You may have noticed that we removed some approved check pilots from the club calendar. The officers and club instructors discussed our current checkout procedures and we feel that we need to formalize how we check people out and add more information regarding club procedures to checkouts. As such, we have decided that only club member instructors will be checking out members moving forward. There have been a number of external instructors that have served us well over the years but we feel that at this time it is important for us to work only with instructors who are also members. As in the past, this limitation only applies to new checkouts in aircraft. After you have been checked out by a club instructor to satisfy insurance requirements, you are free to use any instructor you like.

As a reminder, we currently have three club member instructors. Pic and John Housley are available for checkouts in all three aircraft. Todd Michal is available for the Cessna and the Arrow.

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

Fellow Members,

Please don’t hesitate to let me know if there are any questions.

Blue Skies

TJ

   Maintenance - by John

N202CR RV-7A

• Brakes and Nose Wheel Bearings - On 8/4/2018, new o-rings were installed in the LH and RH brake assemblies. The system was bled and tested to verify proper operation. The nose wheel was removed and the wheel bearings were cleaned and repacked.
• Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed on 4 August. The oil filter was cut open and no metal particles found. The results of the oil sample analysis were good with all readings in the normal range.
• Spinner Platenuts - The spinner forward bulkhead platelets were changed on 8/25/18 and all the spinner screws were replaced with new screws. The locking feature of the old platelets was worn and the screws were coming loose.

N20843 Cessna 172M

• No maintenance actions this month

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Hydraulic Pump - The hydraulic pump for the landing gear failed on 8 August and an overhauled pump was installed on 17 August.
• Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed on 5 August. The oil filter was cut open and no metal particles found. The results of the oil sample analysis were good with all readings in the normal range.

Copyright © 2018, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated aug 2018 .