St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 23 February 2004

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

For those of you that haven't been out to the plane recently "Be Prepared for Ice". The recent snow melt during the days and refreezing at night has created a good 5' - 6' of ice in front of the plane. Though it isn't a big ridge, it is very smooth, providing little, if any, traction. I was out on Saturday with Mike Warakomski and John and it took all 3 of us (one on the tow bar and 2 pushing on the struts) to get past it. Pushing it back in wasn't much of an issue as you could get it moving from the clear pavement. Just a reminder that even though it seems like a beautiful, clear, warm winter day, the North side of the shadeport can still be frozen solid.

John has gotten the nose wheel pant repaired. We will wait until the annual to reinstall it (it still needs to be painted). When it warms up a bit, John will have a painter come out and give us an estimate. Thanks to Randy for working to fix the alternator and ADF indicator squawks.

Mike Warakomski has renewed his medical and completed his BFR (photo at right) and is now a fully qualified member of the club. I look forward to seeing his name often on the schedule.

Happy Landings!
Pic

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

With the payment of all the flying from the previous month, the Adjusted Treasury took a nice jump, from $569 to $820, putting us slightly ahead on saving for the Annual. If we don't have any significant expenses between now and the Annual, and no surprises at the Annual, we should have it covered.

Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

Alternator - Marlin reported the alternator was not charging while under load (was charging fine under light load but not with the landing light on). During troubleshooting, the static battery voltage was checked at 11.5v and with the engine running, it was 13.65v. These are good readings and indicate the charging system is operating normally. The alternator fan belt was too loose and was apparently slipping under load. After tightening the belt, the charging system is now operationg correctly under load.

ADF Indicator - The problem with the ADF indicator was traced to a connector that had vibrated loose. The ADF indicator connector was reinstalled and the ADF now works correctly

Oil Analysis - We received the oil analysis results from the December 31st oil change. The values look very good with no high or abnormal readings. The graph below, which normalizes values to reflect 50 hours between changes, indicates the chrome levels are greatly reduced, possibly due to the use of the Avblend additive. The affect of using Avblend is shown starting with sample 11 below.

Oil Contaminants

Sample Date Hours Alum Iron Copper Nickel Chrome Silicon

1 9-Aug-96 50 18 47 4 4 156 6

2 30-Oct-97 54 16 52 4 4 204 3

3 19-Jun-98 47 18 51 1 4 160 10

4 23-Oct-98 45 12 39 4 5 219 5

5 15-Apr-99 31 11 39 3 5 145 8

6 15-Aug-99 60 12 45 3 8 287 8

7 15-Apr-00 52 13 45 4 8 207 8

8 19-Aug-00 50 13 45 5 6 207 6

9 10-Feb-01 54 14 46 5 5 116 7

10 7-July-01 56 13 57 3 6 124 13

11 26-Oct-01 45 10 44 3 4 83 14

12 28-Apr-02 57 14 56 3 8 165 4

13 15-Mar-03 55 12 56 3 7 108 6

14 23-Jul-03 50 12 56 3 6 112 3

14 31-Dec-03 58 16 28 3 3 57 10

Aircraft for Sale- John

The owner of the aircraft that Randy mentioned in his email sent us a flyer with a photo and additional information on the plane as follows:

1969 Cessna 172K, N84717, S/N 17258589
Engine: 0-360-A4M 180 Horsepower with Power Flow Exhaust
Airframe: 4,598.3 hours, Engine & prop: 716.3 total time since new
Avionics: 2 King KX155 with ILS & Glideslope, RNAV AR850, Transponder
Condition: Interior: 8/10, Exterior: 8/10 (completed in 1989)
Annual Due: 8/2004, ELT Due 2/2006
Location: 3SQ in a T-Hangar
Contact: Don (636-946-7427) or Ollie Nelson (314-330-7193)
Asking Price: $50,000

Based on the emails received since Randy's email, most members prefer to keep our current aircraft. Considering the pros (lower time 180 HP engine and KX155 Radios) and cons (older model (K vs N) and higher airframe total time (+750 hours)), there is not enough incentive to go throught the hassle of selling our aircraft and purchasing this aircraft.

BFR/Medicals Due - by Todd Michal

According to the club records,all the Medical and BFR's are current through March 2004.

Please provide me with any updates on your medical or BFR status.

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%:

The links above take you to Kip's FAA written Test Preparation Site. This site can be found directly at: http://www.exams4pilots.org/

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