"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 December 2008

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Thanks to Mike McBride and John for replacing the LH magneto and getting the aircraft back in service. It is great to have the hanger for maintenance actions like this in the winter.

Mike McBride sent out a financial summary for 2008. It is good to see the aircraft flying hours were up this year, even with the high fuel prices. At 128.5 hours, this was the highest usage since 2002. WIth the lower fuel prices and hourly rate down to $60 an hour, we should have a great year of flying in 2009.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Fuel prices at JetDirect continue to fall, and our hourly flight rate reflects the reduced price; average price for 100LL the past month was $4.96 per gallon, with the flight rate at $60 per hour. Current rates are even lower, so holiday flying looks to be even more affordable! Flight hours for the month were at 8.0, no doubt affected by the magneto failure. Adjusted treasury is slowly recovering from our recent expenditures, and the treasury balance is at about half of the desired level for the annual. The purchase of the new mag will further erode that balance; keep your fingers crossed for limited expenses at annual. Happy holidays to all, hope you all have a chance to spend some time aloft!

The following table shows the total hours on the plane in 2008 through Dec 15. With the plane down for painting over the summer, 95.2 total hours is not too bad.

Member Hours 2000 Hours 2001 Hours 2002 Hours 2003 Hours 2004 Hours 2005 Hours 2006 Hours 2007 Hours 2008

Carpenter - - - - - - - - 35.2

Heilmann 10.1 16.2 16.2 23.2 15.8 12.1 16.8 2.7 7.9

McBride - - - - - 4.6 22.6 11.0 41.4

Michal 25.8 15 10 7.1 23.8 17.6 10.5 24.3 16.6

Rehwinkle - - - - - - 15.5 43.9 8.8

Royce - - - - - - 6.4 5.4 13.5

Russell 7.6 5.3 4.2 2.9 9.3 0.9 1.2 0.8 2.1

Warakomski - - - - 9.9 0.4 6.8 0.3 1.5

Previous Members 71.7 88.2 96.5 71.3 39.7 50.9 28 0 0

Maintenance 1.9 4.1 4.5 7.5 3.2 1.6 3.9 5.3 1.5

Total 117.1 128.8 131.4 112.0 101.7 88.1 111.7 95.2 128.5

Happy flying! Mike

Maintenance - by John

Left Magneto - The engine would not start on Dec 6 and the problem was traced to a problem with the left magneto. The left magneto has a spring loaded impulse coupling that spins the magneto for spark at low rpm during starting. When you have difficulty starting the engine with no signs of spark, it is typically the left mag. A new left mag was ordered and installed and the aircraft returned to service on 19 Dec.

Compression Check - After the engine was OPS checked for the magneto replacement, we also did a compression check. All readings were above 75 which is good. Cylinder 4 was down to 66 at the last annual but this reading was attributed to piston ring gap alignment. The current readings are as follows; 1-75, 2-76, 3-77, and 4-76. The graph below shows the compression trend for the past several years.

2009 Midwest Aviation and Trade Show

There will be a two day Aviation Conference on January 17th and 18th at the Maryland Heights Center. Vendors will be on hand with displays of aviation products and services. Current flight instructors and IA's can renew their certificates at MACTS. A full description of this event is at: MACTS

Location: Maryland Heights Center Map & Directions
2344 McKelvey Road
Maryland Heights, MO 63043

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