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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 June 2023

From The President - By Steve

Dear Members,

Congratulations to Damian Mahoney for his recent CFI/CFII rating. Damian has offered to serve as a club check pilot and is now on the list with Piccirilli, Williams and Mike Mahoney.

I am happy to welcome Cory Bristow as the newest member of the club. Cory fills a vacancy left by Bill Carrier. Cory is a Southwest Captain and is looking forward to getting back into general aviation. He has already completed his Cessna checkout with Pic and has started checkout in the Arrow with Damian. Photo below is Cory with his son Kyler who just soloed a few weeks ago.

Thanks to John and Larry for all the work on the RV. The recent carburetor replacement has shown reduced CHT’s during climb-out but does require you to lean appropriately in cruise to keep the fuel burn rate at a reasonable level.

TJ has sent a check for the Cessna engine and I want to note that it is his work with the finances and the regular audit process by Pic that gave us the confidence to make these big investments in the club. The new engine, prop, and installation hardware shipped on September 1st and should be delivered to the airport on Tuesday, September 5th. We plan to start the installation on September 25th and have blocked off the Cessna schedule for 3 weeks.

It looks like the worst of the heat is over so I hope to see you at the airport.

Steve

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

BILLING STATEMENT

Comments:

• Thanks everyone for continuing to make their payments into PayPal. Most the of the money for the new engine is now in the club's checking account. Please see discussion on the balance sheet.
• Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions. .

BALANCE SHEET

• Our cash position continues to be incredibly strong. We sent a check for $57,027 to the engine company and that will be recorded in the September financial statements. Note that when the new engine hits the financial statements, the funds will be removed from cash, the Cessna engine fund wil be zero'd out, and the value of the engine will be held in "Work in Process",
• Thanks to Pic and John for selling the TruTrak from the RV for $1,400; thus, the large jump in the avionics improvement fund,
• Speaking of the RV, it has had a rough go as of late with a new cylinder last month and an overhauled carburetor this month. We'll get $629 back from our carburetor core, but the maintenance fund will likely remain negative for a couple of months. Given the club's overall cash position, this will not be an issue and the officers will address rates per hour in the fall,

   Maintenance - by John

N202CR RV-7A

• Carburetor - After the replacement of Cylinder #2, we were still seeing higher CHTs than desired (around 430 during climb). Further research into what we could do to reduce the RV CHTs led us to an RV-7 forum post saying that there are two carburetors approved for the O-360 A1A engine in our RV; P/N: 10-3878 which is leaner at full throttle and P/N: 10-4164-1 which is richer at full throttle. The post said that the 10-4164-1 carburetor should be used in the RV-7 because it provides a richer mixture during climb out and would reduce the CHTs by approx. 20 deg. When we checked what carburetor we had in our RV, it was the 10-3878 (lean) carburetor. In order to reduce CHTs and hopefully prevent future cylinder issues, we installed an overhauled 10-4164-1 (richer) carburetor in the RV.

  

  The richer carburetor uses more fuel at full power than the previous carburetor, roughly 17 GPH vs 14 GPH as shown in the first photo below. We climbed out at 110 KTS and the highest CHT was 409 deg which is considerably lower than what we had been seeing. It is important that when you get to cruise altitude, you lean the engine to get down to reasonable fuel burn rates. It is also important to continue leaning during ground operations to avoid fouling the plugs. The second photo below shows what we were seeing at a cruise altitude of 4,500 Ft, 69% power. The highest CHT was 372 deg and the fuel flow was 10.6 GPH.

  

  

N20843 Cessna 172M

• No maintenance actions this month

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Prop Grease - After flights on the hot 90+ degree days, there was a little oil accumulation on the cowl that was coming from the prop blade seals. After a 10 hour flight to Florida and back in high ambient temperatures, the oil accumulation on the cowl and windshield build up to more than we typically see. We called a couple prop shops and they told us that during the hot weather, the grease in the prop can break down and the grease oil can be expelled past the prop seals. They said that this does not affect the operation of the prop and it's "just a little messy". We were going to pull the prop off and have it re-sealed but the down time was estimated to be at least 6 - 8 weeks. TJ had a trip planned to Omaha that weekend and we decided to see how the prop would do on his trip. After TJ's 5 hour flight, there was no oil on the cowl or windshield. We will keep an eye on this.

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