St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 18 December 2001

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I want to thank Randy again for his fine work on the plane this past month; keeping up with the ELT batteries, switching the radios, and general servicing. I really do have a good feeling that Randy's watching out for maintenance!

Anyone who has flown recently has noticed the headliner coming unglued. John Heilmann believes that the headliner could just be reglued. I guess the biggest issue is if it can be glued in place or if the plastic headliner needs to come out of the plane so it can be reglued. I like the ideas about replacing the carpet and interior fabric. John has received some color samples from airtex and is putting together a few color schemes to consider.

The second radio is the next big issue. Should we put money into fixing one of the existing radios, buy another of the Comm #1 radios, or get a GPS/Comm combination? No an easy choice. I'm looking for your thoughts.

Happy Landings!
Pic

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

Even with a few expenses this month like the pitot-static check and radio repair, the Treasury increased, and we currently have over $2200 for Annual, maintenance and improvements.

The flight bill only includes flight time through 2 Dec because I got weathered out of flying and only had the times through 2 Dec when I last flew. The January bill will include the rest of the December time.

The fuel price decreased from $2.60 to $2.55.

   Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

Maintenance Report - On December 7th, Randy worked the following maintenance actions:

1. Installed the new ELT Batteries.
2. The digital comm was repaired at a very reasonable cost. They replaced the U3 and U4 components in the comm receiver. The repaired digital comm was reinstalled into the No. 1 position. It seems to work fine.
3. Serviced the aircraft battery.
4. Lubed the starter again.
5. Cleaned the Press to talk switch on the yoke with contact cleaner again.
6. Checked and serviced the tires.

The headlines in the airplane is starting to come loose and sagging. We might be looking into new interior sections. See below.

Aircraft Improvements - With the annual inspection coming up in a few months, we need to order some of the improvements we selected over the summer so we can install them during the annual. The top five improvements selected were:

1. Exterior paint touchup - Approx. $500.00
2. 4 place Intercom - Approx. $200.00
3. Avionics cooling Fan - Approx. $200.00
4. ELT - Approx. $200.00
5. Interior Improvements - Varies on extend of upgrade.

The following are reasonably priced items we can consider. If anyone has other suggestions or sees a better price, please let us know.

Paint Touchup - For the paint touch up, we can get the paint from Michaelangello at St. Charles airport and have it touched up by an auto-detailer Randy met. His estimate for this effort was $500.00.

Intercom - There are a lot of intercoms on the market that we can choose from. The three intercom's below are reasonably priced and all have a pilot isolate switch. Thunder Aviation installs the Flightcom intercom in their aircraft. The PM501 has received excellent reviews. I am inclined to get the Softcom intercom that comes with all the installation hardware and wire harness included. Please let me know if you have a preference for one of these or any other intercom you are interested in.

Avionics Cooling Fan - The following 2 cooling fins have 3 ports and would be used to cool the 2 coms and transponder.

Emergency Locator Transmitters - The following 2 ELT's are available at reasonable prices from Wag Aero. The case on our ELT is starting to come apart.

Interior Improvements - A full new interior would run around $2,000 -$2,400 if we installed it ourselves. Airtex now has their interior products and prices on the web

The prices for C172 items are:

• Carpet $291.00
• All 4 seats redone $915.00
• Wall panels $593.00
• Baggage compartment $86

Airtex recommends doing the side panes and seats at the same time so colors will match. All the aircraft appraisal sites show that you would get back the money spent on an interior upgrade, especially if we do the installation. This is probably more than we can spend now without a special assessment, but we could do it in stages. We could install a new carpet in the airplane for about $300.00. This would give us that "new aircraft smell" for awhile until we do the next phase.

Editor's Note - by John Heilmann

You may have noticed that the weather button stopped working a few weeks ago. Aeroplanner used to provide this service for free but is now charging a monthly/yearly fee. The new weather link provides the local weather and a forecast for Spirit, but not the overall weather for the central states like the old link did. If anyone has a better weather site that we can link to, please let me know.

If you go to the Newsletter Archive link at the bottom of this page, we now have all the newsletters going back to 1993 on line. Many of the issues we are discussing today are similar to the issues discussed years ago, I have a few more years to add as I get time.

Upcoming Safety Seminars - by John Heilmann

The following Safety Seminars and Meetings are planned in the St. Louis area in the next few months:

• Jan. 19, 2002,--Anheuser Busch Auditorium, St. Louis University,--8AM to 1PM

  The 27th annual St. Louis and Southern Illinois Super Safety Seminar will be held at the Anheuser Busch Auditorium on the lower level of Cook Hall, at St. Louis University. The change of venue from our traditional meeting location at Boeing building 33 was necessary because of security concerns at the Boeing site. Directions

  From the west - I-64/40 to Grand Blvd. North on Grand to Laclede. Left on Laclede Avenue and left into the Laclede parking garage.

  From the east - I-64/40 to exit 38A. Keep right toward Grand Blvd. Turn right onto Grand and then the next left onto Laclede. Turn left into the Laclede parking garage.

  Exit the parking garage at the west end. Cross Laclede Avenue and enter the University at the Spring Avenue gate. Follow the walkway north, past the clock tower. Cook Hall will be on the right side. Enter the building and take the stairs to the lower level.

  Notes

  There will be a $3.00 fee for all-day parking in the Laclede garage. Take the ticket when entering the garage and bring it along to the seminar. The all-day parking certificates will be sold at the auditorium, not at the garage. Be sure to buy a certificate if you are using a campus parking garage, otherwise the rate is $2.00 an hour.

  There are limited numbers of parking meters along Lindell Boulevard. Saturdays are not exempt from the requirement. There is a 2 hour max limit on the meter @ $.25 per hour.

  Drop-offs may be made by turning west on Lindell Boulevard, then left into the circle drive at Pius XII Library. From there enter Davis-Shaughnessy Hall, which is the backside of Cook Hall, then take the stairs down to the auditorium.

  Free coffee and doughnuts will be provided in the morning, and as long as they last throughout the day.

  

  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%:

  • Private Pilot Questions
  • FAA Instrument Test Questions

  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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