St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 29 July 2015

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

I'm happy to report that we are now at full membership for the first time since we decided to add the Citabria! In addition, we just received another great candidate application now on our waiting list. Thanks to everyone for your help with giving tours, orientations, answering questions etc. for the new members, these additions were definitely a team effort!

If you have not done so already, please extend a welcome to Rich Voth our newest member. Rich was previously flying out of Air Associates. Rich is checked out in their G1000 aircraft, 182 and Cutlass, but was looking for a more affordable way to build his skill set and join a group of like-minded aviation enthusiasts. Rich is looking forward to getting checked out in the 172 soon, please introduce yourself and offer assistance with his orientation if you have the chance.

The share for Rich became available because Bob Zyblut decided to sell his membership this month. As many of you may know, Bob had been handling Garmin database updates for the Arrow as well as assisting with annual inspections and other maintenance items regularly. Thanks to Bob for his membership and his willingness to pitch in an help out with a wide range of club duties! Mike Landgraf has agreed to take over database updates for both aircraft and we were able to purchase the extended subscriptions for both the Cessna and Arrow this year at Oshkosh that gives 3 extra months for free. Thanks to Mike for taking on this additional task!

Also, a big thanks to John and Kip for resolving the problem with the Arrow Marker Beacon and panel lights, everything is now working great!

With the recent addition of many new members I have received questions about club procedures over the past couple of months. As I am sure there are others that have similar questions, I will try to share answers here when I believe there may be interest. Last month we covered voting procedures for new members and this month I'll provide information regarding scheduling.

Our scheduling system is open and without many system "limitations" to it. This is by design to keep things simple, but it does require some self- policing by members to ensure that rules and guidelines are being followed. The primary "rules" are around currency and to make sure that you have both a current Flight Review and Medical as well as meet recent experience requirements to match your intended flight when scheduling.

The guidelines are geared towards scheduling limits and resolving conflicts, and can be found in the by-laws. The guidelines generally state:

• No member shall schedule any aircraft for more than four full weekend days in any one month without approval from all members.
• No member shall schedule an aircraft for more than 7 consecutive days without approval of all members before-hand.
• Priority shall be given to members wishing to take long trips, if someone has the plane scheduled for an hour or two over the weekend and you want to go somewhere….feel free to ask the other member.
• Cancellation should be communicated as soon as practical to enable other members to use the aircraft.
• Conflicts should generally be handled between members where possible with any unresolved conflicts or disagreements sent to the President for final resolution.

As a reminder from our May meeting, our Vice President is responsible for schedule policing and notifying anyone in conflict with scheduling rules. If you do receive a call or a note from T.J., it is because he noticed or has been informed of a conflict that is unresolved. The good news is that we rarely see scheduling conflicts and those that exist will typically get resolved with a little flexibility between members. If you do have a question about the above scheduling guidelines, or have other suggestions, please feel free to drop myself or T.J. a note.

One last note is that T.J. is working on organizing an "Open Hangar" BBQ sometime in August as a way to meet and greet with some of the new members, stay tuned for a date it would be great to see everyone at a get together!

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

The July billing statement reflects the addition of Geoff Gallaway and Rick Hoyt getting us up to the total 22 members authorized plus the transfer of Bob Zyblut's share to Rich Voth.

Thanks to Dale Hiltner, we were able to sell the Garmin 430W and KX-155 NavCom from the Arrow to a pilot at St Charles Airport for $8,600. Since we didn't need to pay the 10% commission to Ebay, we were able to make $400 more than planned and the buyer was able to save as well. There are still 6 avionics items to left to sell. All this activity has gone a long way to get the treasury back close to normal.

Gas continues to creep back up, this month up 8 cents bringing the hourly costs to $59, $78 and $102 respectively. Monthly dues stay constant @ $120. Share Value stayed virtually the same @ $10,752.

Pic

   Maintenance - by John

N8746V Citabria 7ECA

• No maintenance issues this month

N20843 Cessna 172M

• AD 2011-10-09 Seat/Seat Rail Inspection - On 17 July, the seat rail and seat inspection AD was complied with.
• Oil and filter Change - On 28 July, the oil and filter were changed and the oil sample was sent in for analysis.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Marker Beacon - New RG-400 coax cable was installed from the marker beacon antenna to the GMA-340 and the GMA-340 Marker Beacon sensitivity and audio levels were adjusted. After a successful ground test, the Marker beacon performed perfectly during Charlie's successful Instrument Check ride on 18 July. Congratulations Charlie!
• Panel Lights - The instrument panel light problem was traced to a broken panel light dimmer Potentiometer. The panel lights were temporarily wired to operate with the radio light dimmer switch until the new panel light switch is received and installed.

Copyright © 2012, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated July 2015.