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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 December 2019 |
From The President - By Steve
Dear Members,
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It is hard to believe we are closing out another year. I was looking at the club history and see that our club has been in operation for 77 years! Wish we had that J3 Cub they started with.
Damian Mahoney informed me that he has enlisted in the Missouri National Guard with an expectation of becoming crew chief on a Blackhawk helicopter. We will probably see a dip in our total flight hours as he works his way through basic training. Congratulations Damian!
December was a slow flying month with some weather issues and holiday travel but a few of us managed to get some time in. Tim Volk, back from Switzerland for a couple of months, scheduled his first flight in the RV with John Housley. Unfortunately they had a flat tire during landing rollout at Washington. There was no damage to the plane and John and Tim coordinated with the airport manager to get the RV towed off the taxiway into a vacant hangar. They were able to borrow tools to get the tire off. As luck would have it, I just happened to be flying over Washington in the Cessna and saw the RV sitting on the taxiway. I landed and was able to give John and Tim a lift back to Spirit. John Heilmann and Larry Wehrman were both out of town but still answered their phones and were helpful in offering advice on parts and procedures. John Housley mounted the new tire and tube and installed the wheel the next morning. Unfortunately it was IFR so we waited until Sunday, when Tim Volk and Larry Wehrman both volunteered to drive me to Washington to retrieve the plane. Kevin and Bruce at Washington were a great help and Kevin refused any payment for 2 nights in the hangar. Make sure you let them know how much we appreciate their help if you get over there.
If you have trouble scheduling flight time on the schedules with your smart phone, try using the aircraft schedule links on the bottom left side of the webpage as these links go direct to the scheduling pages.
Safe flying!
Steve
Treasurer's Report - by T.J
Fellow Members,
Attached below are our December financial schedules; don’t hesitate to call with questions. We had a high level of activity with the Cessna annual, new tug, holiday gathering, and battery/fuel selector valve for the Arrow. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Blue Skies!
Blue Skies
TJ
BILLING STATEMENT
BALANCE SHEET
Notable Items:
- We sold some of our used avionics for $464; the dollars were recorded to the avionics fund
- We completed the Cessna annual and due to a new spinner bulkhead, new magneto coil, new spark plugs, a new right side plastic overlay, and other miscellaneous items, the maintenance fund has moved into negative territory. We expect it to correct during the year without having to change the rate per hour.
- The Arrow flew no hours but we had some expenses for a new battery and new fuel selector valve.
- We are gearing up to make our annual insurance payment ($14,362 last year) and payment of personal property taxes (see section below).
- Overall, our cash position is strong and will allow us to operate nicely into the foreseeable future.
PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES
We paid our personal property taxes on 12/26/19, so they will be reflected in cash in the 1/15/20 period. Because we were accruing toward $3,300, we stopped the accrual in December and will true everything up with the actual payment in January. The history of personal property taxes is as follows:
RATE PER HOUR and DUES
- As a reminder to the membership, we reimburse ourselves for our club as follows:
- Improvements - Monthly/Annual Fixed charges – non-aircraft expense = Dues and Assessments
- Aircraft Operation and Maintenance = Rate per Hour
- We updated the rates as of 9/15/19 and don’t anticipate making any changes until 3/15/20.
Maintenance - by John 
N202CR RV-7A
- Oil Change - On Dec 8, the oil and filter were changed. Oil analysis results showed acceptable results, however the oil filter inspection showed some very small, non metallic (aluminum) particles in the filter. We (Larry and I) suspect that the particles may be caused by a broken ring in Cylinder #3 as there is more oil in the lower spark plug when we check them than in the other cylinders. When we down the RV for the avionics upgrade in January, we plan to pull Cylinder 3 and check the rings.
- LH Tire/Tube - As Steve mentioned above, on Dec 27th, the RV had a flat tire on landing Rollout at Washington Airport. John Housley replaced the tire with an Air Hawk 5.00-5 4 ply tire and tube with a Dresser Aero Classic 5.00-5 tube and the aircraft ferried back to Spirit on Dec 29th.
N20843 Cessna 172M
- Annual Inspection - The Cessna annual took place between 4-13 Dec. The main items accomplished during the annual inspection are as follows:
- Compression test results were #1-78/80, #2-79/80, #3-76/80, #4-76/80
- Accomplished 500 hour inspection of Magnetos. On RH Mag, installed new AK-3975 Coil, K2822 Distributor block and gear assembly, and AM3081 contact assembly
- Replaced cracked spring that retains the #4 Cylinder Push rod tube.
- Changed oil and filter. Oil analysis results and filter inspection were good
- Removed and reinstalled nose shock strut after installation of a new seal kit.
- Replaced RH tire and tube with new Air Hawk 6:00-6 6 ply tire and tube. Re-greased RH main and Nose wheel bearings.
- Replaced cracked aft spinner bulkhead with new spinner bulkhead
- Updated G5 software to Version 6.20 and installed a new GAD-13 Interface adapter and Davtron C307PS OAT probe to provide True Airspeed (TAS), Outside Air Temperature (OAT), and Density Altitude on the G5 attitude indicator and Wind Direction/Speed on the G5 HSI as shown below.
N2242N Piper Arrow IV
- Battery Change On Dec 14, a new Concord RG-35AXC Battery was installed. The previous battery lasted almost 4 years which is excellent
- Fuel Selector Valve - When showing the Arrow to a potential new member, Steve smelled a strong fuel oder when getting into the cockpit. It turned out that the Fuel selector valve was leaking fuel past the handle shaft o-ring. After draining all the fuel, we installed a new Allen 6S122 Fuel Selector valve.
Copyright © 2018, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated December 2019
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