St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 12 January 1994

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

REMINDER: A meeting of the St. Louis Flying Club will be held at Charlie McMullin's house on January 26, 1994 at 7 30 P.M.

Since my last letter, the county has decided to quit paying us interest and settled up by sending Charlie a check for $12,102.18 (attachment #1). Charlie McMullin has also sent me a letter detailing his fee, expenses, and sample contract (attachments #2, #3 & #4). I have calculated that Charlie will owe the club a check for $7,724.03 at the meeting. (see calculations below)

You can see from attachment #2 that Charlie believes he has "suffered a large monetary loss". He also states that he would appreciate it if we would "add to or enhance" his fee "due to the enormous amount of work" he performed. This is something I will bring up for a vote at the 1/26/94 meeting.

My personal feelings are that club members contribute their personal time to the club without asking for monetary or other compensation (schedullng, replacing tires, making wheel chocks, cleaning spark plugs, working on the electrical system, keeping the books, monthly newsletters, attending the trials, helping prepare for trlals, assisting with the annual inspection, performing the oil changes, etc.). I appreciate that Charlie offered to take on this case and the way he has seen it to completion. But since he is a club member, he will benefit from the improvements to the plane the same way the other members will based on their service to the club.

I took the 172 to St. Charles Municipal this past Sunday to get a paint estimate. The new windows are GREAT!! I was impressed by the paint shop there and got a tour by the owner/painter. They just built a second paint shop that is really impressive. He happened to be in the process of painting a C-182 I used to own part of. The workmanship looked great! A guy I know from work happened to also stop ln with hls plane that was painted there 2 years ago. The workmanship looked great and was looking real good!

His basic rate for painting a 172 ls $4200. This compares to a top-notch shop in Ohio quoting $5500 and the AOPA article quoting $4000-$6000. The main differences for the reduced cost at St. Charles is they paint the aircraft with the cowling, inspection coverd, and control surfaced on the plane. For the difference in price, the close location (no travel expenses), fiberglass repairs, quicker service (first opening is end of February at St. Charles and end of June in Ohio) and the same process and paint ("Jet Glow") I would choose St. Charles. They also would refurbish the salvageable interior pieces and install the new ones, all painted to match.

The way I see the prices adding up are:

Another item I have priced is a new carpet ($200 if we install it ourselves). That would leave just under $2,000 to put towards a GPS. I am going on vacation for a week from 1/14 thru 1/21. Please contact me at work, 234-5805 or at home, 537-3260, if you can't make the meeting.

Happy Landings,

Mike Piccirilli

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