"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 26 July 2010

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

It has been a long haul, but the C-172 is back and flying great. If you haven't already done so, please review the engine break in procedures before taking the plane up. Several members are flying the Skyhawk. This has helped ease the congestion on the Arrow which has seen record levels of flying over the past couple of months.

The GNS 430 was removed from the Arrow, sent back to Garmin for the WAAS upgrade, and reinstalled last weekend. Thanks to Bob's help, we were able to get a good price for the WAAS upgrade. Thanks to John, Bob, Shiv, and Pic for installing the upgraded GNS-430W along with the vertical card compass and RH main tire.

Several members have expressed interest in adding a portable weather solution to the club. We plan to keep this separate from the regular club financials, so the cost will be split only among the members interested in using the weather solution. We plan to hold a get together for interested members to discuss the financials and review hardware and software options. If you are interested in being part of this group, or would like to find out more, please let Shiv or myself know.

We are in the process of adding our 15th member, Jeffrey Evitts, to the club. This will leave us with one final opening. Several new members have joined the club recently and many of our members have not met each other. After we fill the final member slot, we will be holding a club meeting to try and get everyone together.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

FAA Requires Aircraft Reregistration - By John

The FAA will now require re-registration of all civil aircraft over the next three years and renewal every three years after that. The final rule published this week establishes specific expiration dates over a three-year period for all aircraft registered before Oct. 1, 2010, and requires re-registration of those aircraft according to a specific schedule. A fee of $5 will be collected for each registration and each renewal. The FAA will cancel the N-numbers of aircraft that are not re-registered or renewed. The FAA says "These improvements will give us more up-to-date registration data and better information about the state of the aviation industry". Current regulations require owners to report the sale of an aircraft, the scrapping or destruction of an aircraft, or a change in mailing address, but many owners have not complied with those requirements, the FAA said.

Per the FAA reregistration schedule, we will need to register the Piper Arrow N2242N between 1 Nov 2010 to 31 Jan 2011 and the Cessna 172 N20843 between 1 Aug and 31 Oct 2011 at a cost of $5.00 per aircraft.

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Fuel prices remained stable at $5.45 per gallon at TACAir; that kept the flying rates level at $65 and $87 for the C172 and Arrow, respectively. Flying hours for the C172 were low due to the engine overhaul; hours on the Arrow were very strong, over 31 hours for the month.

The Treasury saw a lot of adjustment during the month; the ending balance dropped substantially due to payment for the engine overhaul. In addition, the C172 Engine fund went to zero to partially cover that expense, as did the C172 Improvement fund. The Treasury was also reduced due to the correction of errors on the April, May, and June statements, where I inadvertently double-paid for the pending member dues. I've provided updated statements for those months for posting on the web site, please let me know if you have any questions about the errors or the correction.

The Arrow loan balance remained the same during the month, and the Equity fund reduced to cover pending member payments and interest charges. We now have a budget overage of about $3,000 on the Arrow acquisition, which amounts to just over $250 per full member; once all expenses and memberships have been reconciled, we'll balance the books on the Equity fund.

The cost for the annual is still not finalized, but it looks like current estimates show a remaining charge of about $1,100, or $70 per member. We should have the final figures on the overhaul and annual by next statement.

Fly safely!

Mike

Maintenance - by John

N20843

Annual Inspection - The Cessna annual inspection/engine installation was completed and the aircraft returned to service on 2 July. The engine seems to be breaking in smoothly with no additional oil required in the first 8.5 hours of operation.
RH Strobe - The RH Wing strobe tube was replaced on 17 July with a new Whelen A427M strobe tube.
Oil/Filter Change - The oil and filter were changed on 18 July at approximately 9 hours SMOH as required for the engine break-in procedure. The next oil change is due in 25 hours. We are continuing to use only Aeroshell 100 Mineral Oil during the break-in period. There are several quarts of Aeroshell 100 oil in the locker at the shadeport. Only add oil if it is below 6 qt. on the dipstick before you fly.
Oil hose replacement - The oil cooler and oil pressure hoses were replaced on 24 July. The new lines have firesleeve installed to protect them in the event of an exhaust leak.

N2242N

Oil Change - The 50 hour oil and filter change was completed on 18 July. The spark plugs were also cleaned, gapped and rotated.
Upgrade Installation - The new PAI-700 vertical card compass and upgraded GNS-430W were installed on 25 July. The RH Tire and tube were replaced and the wheel bearings greased. A new LED tail light was installed in the upper tail light position.

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