St Louis Flying Club

Club Newsletter - 18 August 2000

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

Thanks mostly to Marlin and Todd, we have put 50 hours on the airplane since the April annual, time for another oil change. There are some nagging issues that have been discussed via e-mails over the past month but I would like to resolve them. I'd like to have a club meeting to discuss them. Todd, please arrange a meeting time and place that can be published in the next newsletter.

The specific things I would like to discuss, and assign to specific members to resolve, are:

Avionics issues: Placement of radios, avionics cooling fan, replacement of radios, headset connections, microphone issues, tracking of each avionics issue via a root cause analysis, does it make sense to remove the ADF and replace with a combination GPS moving map/communication radio?
Paint touch up: Wing leading edge, cowling, wheel pants
Seat Refurbishment
Autopilot: Does anyone have experience with this type of autopilot in another aircraft? Do they all work as crappy as this one? Does it need to be repaired? Does anyone use? Should we just remove it (including the servo)? Save the weight and gain the panel space.
Add backup vacuum system or add backup electrical gyros (see the following paragraph)
Let me know of any other issues.

I received Service Letter No. 31, a "Silent Emergency" Publication and a Vacuum Pump Replacement Schedule in the mail concerning the potential failure of the Vacuum system during IFR flight. The service letter strongly recommends (requires?) having a "back-up" pneumatic system or electrically powered stand-by gyroscopic instruments installed if the aircraft is used for IFR flight. A standby vacuum system Kit (SVS III) is available from Aircraft Spruce for $350.00 and can be installed in 2-4 hours. It operates on a differential between manifold pressure and ambient pressure. Electrically powered gyros (Attitude and Dircectional) would run $2,600 and then there is the problem with where to install them in the panel. Please read this information and we will discuss it at the next club meeting.

I had sent out an e-mail but received no response on who has the Rubbermaid step stool. Please fess up.

Spirit is having another Labor Day weekend airshow but I haven't seen any correspondence on impact to airport closings. Be aware if you are planning on flying those days.

Happy Landings, PIC

From The Treasurer - From Marlin Sipe

The Adjusted Treasury held about steady this month, instead of taking a step back like I said last month I thought it would. My fuel credit held it back, but when credit is taken for payment of the flight time next month, we should see a decent jump. Fuel charges and flight time payments are often out of sync. I bought 53 gallons of fuel in Ohio at only $2.06 a gallon! Then in PA I bought some for $2.61, and some for $2.36 on special at the same FBO.

We actually had a zero balance on the fuel credit card this month. I think partly because the plane was out of town for a while, and partly because of timing of when JetCorp bills it. No complaints there.

Maintenance Corner - From Marlin Sipe & Randy Skyles

On 8/19, the oil was changed, and the plugs were cleaned and rotated.

The internal red dome light that lights the instruments at night was burned out. That has been replaced.

We still need to address the avionics problems. As I reported in email, on my trip to PA a few weeks ago the Mode-C stopped working once, and the new comm radio became intermittent again. We were thinking that maybe it's a general heat problem, because the equipment gets very warm to the touch. Maybe we should consider an avionics cooling fan.

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