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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 30 January 2016

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

Congratulations to Geoff Gallaway who passed his Instrument Check Ride this month!

A huge thanks to John and Steve Heidenreich as they completed troubleshooting of the master switch in the Arrow and also swapped the Blind altitude Encoder in the Citabria. It looks like there is now an opportunity with the vacuum pump in the Cessna! Even with three aircraft flying regularly, John with the help of members, is able to keep downtime to a minimum.

We now have two very interested prospective members on our waiting list. The newest prospective member is based in West Plains, MO. He built and owns a One Design aircraft and would be interested in assisting with aerobatic instruction for the club as well as flying the Citabria.

I have received some useful feedback about the proposed scheduling changes sent out last week, please keep them coming. Keep in mind that all aspects of the proposed changes are eligible for input during this comment period. These rules affect all of us and our flying and we should ensure that we get our best thinking around any changes we make so that they are in the best long term interest of our club. Feel free to drop me or any officer a note or call, whatever is most convenient for you.

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

The financial budget for 2016 incorporates the following changes: slight increase in aircraft insurance, no longer able to obtain mechanic's liability insurance, and addition of Citabria Personal Property Tax. Those changes pretty much balance out to $119 monthly ($1 decrease from 2015). I checked the fuel consumption history of the planes from 2015 and made the following changes; raised the Citabria from 5.5 to 6.1, lowered the C-172 from 8.2 to 8.1 and no change on Arrow. The fuel price has finally started to drop (- $.31) which, along with the hourly fuel flow changes, makes the hourly rates $61, $76 and $99 respectively. The share value calculates at $10,616.

Pic

   Maintenance - by John

N8746V Citabria 7ECA

• Transponder Altitude Encoder - ATC had reported that the transponder was sending out incorrect altitude information. The problem was traced to the altitude encoder which sends altitude information to the transponder. The AK-350 altitude encoder that was removed from the Arrow during the avionics update was installed in the Citabria and ops checked OK. Mueller Avionics did the required static system pressure check and transponder check to make sure that the transponder was sending out the correct altitude information at the various altitudes. The Citabria was returned to service on Jan 29th.

N20843 Cessna 172M

• Engine Monitor - The new number 2 EGI probe was installed on 5 January and the engine monitor is now working properly without at issues.
• Secondary Seat Stop - The secondary seat stop is a little difficult to release and slide the seat back sometimes. It usually works best to pull up on the left side (pilot door side) of the seat release handle as this is the side the cable is attached to. If you pull up on the right side or center of the seat release handle, the handle flexes enough that it doesn't move the cable sufficiently to release the seat. I will work on adjusting this so it works more smoothly.
• Vacuum Pump - The Vacuum pump failed during a VFR flight on 30 January. The standby backup vacuum system was used on the return flight and the system worked properly. A new Rapco RAP215CC Vacuum pump will be installed on 1 February.
• Oil and Filter Change - The oil and filter were changed on 30 January.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Intermittent Electrical Issues - The intermittent electrical issue was finally duplicated on the ground and was traced to a faulty Avionics Master Switch/Breaker. The contacts in the switch were not making good contact which increased resistance and caused the avionics bus voltage to drop. Since the engine monitor is run off the avionics master, it was intermittently showing low voltage even though the alternator was putting out the correct voltage/amperage to the main bus. A new Avionics master switch was installed and the system now works properly. Due to the intermittent nature of this issue, we had installed a new voltage regulator and battery (old battery was almost 3 years old) to try and address this issue. We will keep the old voltage regulator as a spare as it can also be used on the Citabria.

Copyright © 2015, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated January 2016 .