"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 15 January 2000

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

Thanks to those members who were able to attend our annual meeting. We had a lot of good discussion and the minutes can be seen in the newsletter. Congratulations to our new officers. The main points discussed were our move to the electronic age. As of March 1st, the aircraft scheduling will be done exclusively via the club website. Also, with the March issue, the newsletter will be distributed via the website only.

Since the meeting, I have some new information on the annual. John Heilmann has found a T-Hangar for our use located at St. Charles County, Smartt Field. This should enable us to save some extra $$$$..

I wish each of you Happy Holidays and great New Year!

Happy Landings,

Pic.

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

We are slowly building up funds in the Treasury, but falling behind from what we would like to have so far. If we do the Annual ourselves, it will probably not be a problem. If we do not have enough to cover the Annual, we will probably each be assessed 1/7 of the shortage to bring us back up to zero to start the coming year.

With both the Annual and insurance due in April, the checking account may fall below the minimum balance for no service charges. It would help if you can get your checks to me by the 15th.

From the Editor - from Marlin Sipe

I guess this is the last newsletter that I will be editing. It's been fun. Good luck John Heilmann.

Regarding the online scheduling. I suggest entering your name to show up on the schedule. Then use the pop-up text to add any notes. If you need tanks topped (or not), enter that in the pop-up text. You should call the person who has it scheduled before you (if anyone) to let them know how you want the fuel. Also, when you schedule, check the next entry after you (if any) to see if there are any special requests. I think that will work and hopefully make sure special requests are not missed.

If you need to schedule the plane, but don't have access to a computer at the time (spur of the moment decision to go flying while driving), call John Heilmann or one of the other club members. I think this will be a rare occurrence, but hopefully we will all be willing to help in that case.

Maintenance - from Marlin Sipe

Nothing much to report here. It will be up to Randy if we want to do the Annual ourselves.

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Meeting Minutes - from Todd Michal

On Saturday, Feb. 5, 2000, members of the St. Louis Flying club held their annual meeting. The meeting took place at the Old Country Buffet in Bridgeton, MO. In attendance were, Mike Piccirilli, Todd Michal, Marlin Sipe, Randy Skyles, and John Hielmann.

Treasurer's Report

The meeting began with a report by Marlin on the state of the club finances. Marlin indicated that we may have a small problem in April when the annual inspection and insurance become due during the same month.

Maintenance Report and Annual Inspection

Next we discussed the annual inspection. Marlin and John Heilmann indicated that we may be able to gain access to a hanger for the annual inspection. We could then do the inspection ourselves. Randy indicated that if we do this we should first check the compression and some other simple things to make sure that we don't expect any major problems. A major problem could tie the plane up for several weeks while we try to get it fixed. Mike Piccirilli indicated that there are advantages to taking the plane back to C&D. They ran the AD check on the plane last year and are familiar with the planes maintenance history. Also if any problems are found during the inspection, C&D would be able to fix them quicker than we could. John and Marlin will check into the hanger availability and cost. The default position is that we will return the plane to C&D aviation for the annual.

No major problems with the plane were brought forward. Mike Piccirrilli indicated that the paint is chipping and needs to be touched up in places. He also mentioned that the seats are showing their age and are becoming worn. This is not a major problem but something that will need to be addressed in the future. John Hielmann will check into the cost of getting the paint touched up with Michelangillo ( the company that painted the plane). John will also check into the cost of getting the seats reupholstered.

Election of Officers

The next item of business was to elect officers for the coming year. The new club officers as approved by the present members are:

President: Mike Piccirilli
Vice President: Todd Michal
Secretary: John Hielmann
Treasurer: Marlin Sipe
Maintenance: Randy Skyles
Scheduling: John Hielmann

Online Scheduling System

The last item of business was the discussion of the club web site and online scheduling system. All members agreed that John did an excellent job of putting the site together and thank him for his effort. A discussion of the online system ensued. The arguments in favor of the use of the online system included, Ability to see the future schedule, ability to schedule the plane at any hour of the day or night without bothering the scheduling officer, ability to leave notes to other members such as fuel requirements etc. The only disadvantage that was discussed would be the requirement to have access to a computer to schedule the plane. All of the members that were present have access to the internet, we agreed to check with the absent members to verify that they also have access to the web. The club approved a resolution to give the web based scheduling system a trial run. Beginning March 1, the club plane will be scheduled online. We will try the system out for 2 months and then poll the members to vote on whether to make the online scheduling system permanent.

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