"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 25 July 2009

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

Thanks to John for painting new alignment stripes last weekend for the nose and main wheels to help better align the aircraft when pushing it back into the hanger. It is now much easier to keep it straight. The old alignment stripe was not in the correct position and would guide you in at an angle.

I received a phone call yesterday from the Spirit Airport Administration saying they plan to resurface the ramp in front of the hangar next Monday (John, it looks like we will need to repaint the stripes!). Access to the hangar will be blocked on Monday and Tuesday (July 27 and 28). We will move the plane over to the shade ports on Sunday and send out an email to let everyone know where it is.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Flight hours for the month were fairly strong, with almost 12 flight hours logged (and about 3.3 maintenance "hours" ... but more on that later). Fuel prices fell again, back down to $5.08 per gallon, putting our flight rate at $58 per hour. For some reason, the fuel consumption this month spiked up almost 1 GPH. Let's keep an eye on the mixture settings, it should be possible to fly with fuel consumption well below 7 GPH. The overall trend over the longer term is still good, let's make sure we can to keep it there!

The new tachometer was installed this month, and the readings (now recorded in hundredths of an hour) were a bit out of sync with the old tachometer. As a result, we show about 3.3 hours of maintenance time on the plane, but I believe that most of that (2.44 hours) is due to delta readings on the tachs.

Even with the unexpected maintenance expenses this month (approximately $1,200 for alternator, voltage regulator, and tachometer) our treasury and adjusted treasury balances are positive, at $625 and $800, respectively.

A couple of reminder to members ...

Please remember to record your flight hours on the schedule after you fly; that makes it a lot easier for me to put together the monthly billing statement, particularly when I'm on the road.
Please remember to pay your monthly bill in a timely fashion; anything I receive by about the 13th of the following month generally will get posted on the next statement. I try to send out reminders around the first of the month, but don't always remember to do that.

Fly safely!

Mike

Maintenance - by John

Alternator/Voltage Regulator - WIth the installation of the traffic monitor, we started to receive low voltage readings on the traffic monitor with increasing load on the system (transmitting, landing lights on, etc). There were no other indications of a problem other than on the traffic monitor warning (battery was charging, no problems starting the aircraft or operating any of the systems. Further troubleshooting of the system found that there was a short in the alternator field which would not allow the voltage regulator to maintain the proper voltage under increasing loads. Rather than getting another overhauled Kelly Alternator (can't buy them new), we installed a new Plane Power Alternator that is more efficient, runs cooler, and generates more voltage at lower RPM than the Kelly alternator. We also installed a Zeftronics Voltage Regulator R15100 Rev A that has a built in status light to aid in system troubleshooting. During my 3.8 hour trip to Gastons, there were no "low Voltage" warnings and bus voltage stayed at 13.8-14.0 volts.

Landing Light - The standard landing light in the C-172 M is a 4522 bulb which is a 250 Watt light (Max. Beam Candlepower 290,000). It draws 18.12 amps at 13.8 volts (normal bus voltage). This is quite a power draw on the electrical system, especially at low RPM during taxi or landing. The most common landing lights on other Cessna's and most general aviation aircraft is the 4509 bulb which is a 100 watt light (Max. Beam Candlepower 110,000) that draws 7.25 amps. While constant or prolonged use of the landing light on most general aviation aircraft is not a problem at a 7.25 amp load, it is much more of an issue on the 172M at almost a 20 amp load (1/2 alternator output at 1000 rpm). Both the 4522 and 4509 bulbs have an average 25 hour life. To try and improve our landing light life and reduce the load on the electrical system, we installed a GE H7635 Halogen Light which is a 50 Watt (Max. Beam Candlepower 160,000) that draws 3.6 amps and has a 100 hour life. It was installed as a minor alteration. While the candlepower of the new bulb is less than the 4522 bulb (160,000 vs 290,000), it is still much higher than the most common 4509 landing light bulb which is 110,000 cp.

Gaston Trip I had a great trip to Gaston's earlier this week. I planned to go down for a one day trip but the weather moved in faster than expected and I decided to stay until the weather improved which took an additional 2 days. At least we had nice accommodations while we waited.

On the return trip a few minutes after take off, I heard a voice warning "Traffic Nearby".. "Traffic Nearby". The traffic monitor showed the traffic was 1 mile and 100 feet lower than I was. I started to look slightly below our current altitude when the voice warning came on again and the traffic monitor showed "0" miles to target and -100 ft. Just then I spotted an Aeronca coming straight at us just below our altitude. I altered course to avoid the plane (he did not appear to have seen us). The traffic monitor did a great job in this case. It made us focus on traffic avoidance at the critical time. Make sure you have the toggle switch just to the right of the traffic monitor in the "pilot" position so you can hear the voice warning. This switch can also be set in the "co-pilot" position so the safety pilot can hear the warnings during instrument practice.

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