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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 24 February 2019

From The President - By Steve

Greetings Members:

The weather this month has made it pretty difficult for any of us to get much flying in last month. That said, congratulations to Damian Mahoney for completing his check out in the RV! Damian teamed up with John Housley and was able to finish in 3 flights - well done.

My wife and I were fortunate enough to get out on a snowy day last weekend and it was amazing. The ground and trees snow covered, aprons at Spirit with about a 1 inch crust, and Washington totally white with the exception of 3 touch and go tracks in the snow (2 before we got there). So there was a little flying to be had if you could pick your moments.

I thought with so little flying I would take the time to look back on the last year and was surprised at how quickly it passed and also the number of changes. We increased our total members to 24, saw 2 members move on, and picked up 3 new members. We had several changes in the officers as we filled the positions vacated by Charley Royce and Tim Volk, and also created a Chief Pilot position. The club acquired an RV7A to replace the Citabria and completed major avionics upgrades on the Cessna.

We continue to receive applications for membership and I will reach out to all the applicants to gauge their current interest level for a report at our spring meeting. That meeting is also the lottery drawing for anyone planning on taking a club plane to Oshkosh. Geoff will put something out on that in the next couple of months. The officers will be working on an agenda so if there is anything you would like addressed at the meeting send it to me or Mike Landgraf.

This year has seen some of our fixed costs increase: hangar rental, insurance, property tax, and database updates have all gone up. TJ is evaluating options to deal with these increases and will have a recommendation next month.

Safe Flying,

Steve

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

Fellow Members,

Attached below are our 2/15/19 financial schedules; don’t hesitate to call with questions.

Blue Skies

TJ

Billing Statement

The billing statement is attached below, please let me know if you have any questions.

BALANCE SHEET

Notable Items:

• Cash-General – While it appears large, keep in mind that these funds are largely earmarked for sales tax related to the RV (due 4/15/19 for $3,353.59) and the upgrade of the RV for ADS-B (budget = $4,000). Recall that we did move $3,000 out of general into “avionics” last year.
• Avionics – Congrats to John Heilmann and Pic again!! They sold the 430 and other items out of the Cessna for a total of $8,397.45. This drove the large overall increase in cash and is responsible for progress in the fund. The $8,397 plus our normal $300 per month was offset by $3,000 offset to John and Larry for all their efforts in the account.
• Cessna Maintenance – We had to replace the brakes in the Cessna this month and it was a major expense. John and Larry plan to sell the old parts on eBay and that should help replenish the fund. The fund has moved negative for the time being, but I expect it to recover in a reasonable amount of time.
• Major Work – The Cessna is complete so all amounts in the account were moved to zero. The remainder represents parts we purchased to upgrade the Arrow.

  

  

     Maintenance - by John
  

  N202CR RV-7A

  • Alternator - During a training flight on Feb 6, John Housley noticed a jump in the voltage to over 16 volts and current fluctuations of 20-30 amps. After cycling the alternator field circuit breaker, the voltage and amperage readings slowly returned to normal for the remaining flight back to Spirit. The likely cause of these abnormal readings is a faulty voltage regulator which in the case of our Experimental RV is built into the Alternator. Research on the Vans Air Force Website showed that it was a automobile alternator from a 1987 Suzuki Samari which we were able to purchase from the local Auto Zone for $100. Ground and flight checks show the alternator is working normally.

  N20843 Cessna 172M

  • Cleveland Wheel and Brake Conversion - During the Cessna annual in December, we saw that the McCauley LH wheel brake cylinder was leaking fluid. We rebuilt both brake cylinders with new O-Rings and honed the cylinders to hopefully resolve the issue. Prior to a flight on February 2nd, however, Larry noticed that the LH brake cylinder was leaking fluid again. Inspection of the 40 year old brake cylinder showed that it was pitted and will need to be replaced. Unfortunately, McCauley only made wheels and brakes for Cessna from 1974 -1977 and replacement parts for our wheels and brakes are not available other than used 40 year old parts that are expensive and probably in a similarly bad condition. We decided to convert to Cleveland wheels and brakes as replacement parts are readily available. We plan to recoup some of the cost by selling our still usable wheels and RH brake on Ebay.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed on Jan 26th and the oil analysis results show all readings are normal.

  
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