St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 Feb 2013

From The President - By Pic

Dear Members,

During the last month, the club hangar office has essentially been completed except for some finishing touches thanks to the efforts, donations and hard work of many members! See the attached photos:

I've attempted to capture the various members' contributions below (I apologize for anyone I might have left out):

• Flooring installation: John & Dom
• Coffee maker donation, Floor leveling, finish interior painting, carpet installation, baseboard installation: John
• Cabinets, countertops, desk pedestals (used), table (used), white board (used) pick-up/delivery installation: John, Pic & Kip
• Office chairs (5) donation: Steve
• Computer, wireless connectivity, air-band radio and antenna donation and installation: Kip
• Flat screen TV donation: Charley
• Simulator rudder pedals, control yoke, and throttle/mixture control donation: Shiv

In addition to what is shown in the pictures; we have the air conditioner to install, a VFR planning wall map to hang, the flat screen TV to mount and build/wire the computer and internet trough. At the December meeting, we authorized $2,000 for building the office. We have overrun that amount. To get to the state shown in the photos, we have spent $2,460 for the basic structure. The carpeting and finishing materials cost $400, air conditioner $168 and the cabinetry/countertops/desk pedestals/whiteboard were $708. The total is $3,740. I believe the end product looks very professional and will serve the club members for years to come. Based on our "sweat equity" labor used to perform all the work, I see no problem with setting the value of our office asset at $3,800.

Looking ahead to using the office, I'd like to ensure we keep it organized for all the members to enjoy. We now have plenty of climate-controlled storage, but even with the 9 desk drawers, 2 cabinet drawers and 5 cabinet shelves for storage, I predict that we will be over-whemed with stuff in them without placing some controls. I'll be working with the club officers to allocate space for maintenance records, financial records, cleaning supplies, drinks, oil, headphones, etc. Please let an officer know if there is something you'd like to donate or have room to store in the office so we can arrange for it. The one item we believe we have room for, and would like to find, is a used loveseat. If anyone has one to donate or knows of one available, please let me know.

Paul Carpenter has notified me that he needs to sell his share (Mike McBride also his share for sale). Here is the ad Paul placed on Craigs List: http://stlouis.craigslist.org/for/3596690916.html

The club's insurance has been renewed for a little less than we paid last year (thanks to Chris for coordinating). I really appreciate all the members responding quickly to the questions needing to be answered for the renewal!

And congratulations on Shiv completing his Instrument rating! We have quite a few members working on their rating and they can appreciate Shiv's perseverance and great example.

Happy Landings,

Pic

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

I've transferred the club's funds to the new club checking account which is linked to the new club PayPal account and credit card. The new credit card gets cash back for purchases (3% for fuel and 1% for other - I anticipate $500 in savings annually). You'll notice that I revised the billing statement a bit. It contains the same info but I feel it flows more cleanly from the member activity at the top, then treasury changes, escrow changes, checking account value, asset values share value and monthly dues. I did put the aircraft annuals into the escrow account as we amortize the anticipated costs monthly. Through an in depth analysis of the treasury records, I have made the following updates:

• Monthly dues increased $1: update to database subscription amounts
• Fuel burn analysis shows that the Arrow should be reduced to 10 gal/hr (reduced from 11) - see details below
• C-172 fuel flow shows fluctuations between 9.1 and 10.3 (because of a tach issue I will leave it at 9.0 for now)
• The C-172 engine overhaul hourly amount raised from $10 to $11 to match Vref estimated amount

The main elements that changed this month:

• Club office added as an asset: $3,800
• The insurance was paid: $9,045 (just slightly under our escrowed amount)
• Fuel prices have increased about $.25 to an average of $6.00
• Adjusted hourly rates: C-172 up by $3, Arrow down by $3 (combination of higher fuel cost and lower Arrow fuel consumption)
• The Treasury value decreased to $5,440
• Share value decreased to $10,145

I did not have the chance to analyze the aircraft maintenance costs yet to validate the accuracy of the estimated hourly values. This analysis will look over the past few years and I hope to have it done in the next month or so. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Fly Safely!

PIC

   Maintenance - by John

N20843

The following Cessna maintenance actions were taken this month:

• Strut Servicing - The nose strut serviced with hydraulic fluid and Nitrogen on 17 January.

• Tachometer - We had a squawk on 12 Jan that the tach RPM is not matching the RPM shown on the engine monitor. Rather than trying to repair the current Tach, the lowest cost option was to get a new mechanical tach. The new tach will have a much easier to read hour meter and should more accurately represent engine hours than the current tach.

N2242N

• Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed at 5600.20 hours tach time on 20 Jan. The oil analysis results are shown below. The filter was sent in for analysis as well but we have not received the results yet.
  

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