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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 July 2019

From The President - By Steve

Dear Members:

It appears things are starting to dry out and all the local fields affected by the flood waters are operating on at least a restricted basis. Even Airventure Oshkosh suffered from soggy parking early but it looks like they are finished up with some great weather. I am anxious to get a report from several of our members that were able to attend this year.

Brian Williams experienced a flat tire while landing in the RV. He did a nice job maintaining control of the airplane and much thanks to John and Larry for coming out on a Sunday morning to get the tire changed and the plane back in the hangar. The cause of the flat was a small hole on the inner tube side wall. The tire looked fine with no indications of puncture or wear.

By now all of you have seen the message about restricting aerobatic maneuvers in the RV. Most of us are new to experimental airplanes so we are trying to determine what maneuvers, cg's, g's, and gross weights apply. Hopefully John Housley and John Heilmann will gather some information from their trip to Oshkosh. More to come.

We received two membership applications in July. I was able to provide a hangar tour to both. Interest in the club remains high.

Steve

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

Fellow Members,

Attached below are our 7/15/19 financial schedules; don’t hesitate to call with questions.

Blue Skies

TJ

Billing Statement

BALANCE SHEET

Notable Items:

• Overall Cash – Steadily increasing to $29,000.
• Cessna Maintenance – Still negative from the new brakes, and now a new battery but we expect it to correct without having to adjust rate per hour.

RATE PER HOUR and DUES

Don’t expect any changes until the September 15 billing statement.

   Maintenance - by John

N202CR RV-7A

• Engine driven Fuel Pump - on 5 July, Damian reported that he experienced low fuel pressure resulting in engine roughness in flight. He turned on the electric fuel pump and the engine ran fine. We installed an overhauled Tempest LW15472 Fuel Pump, S/N 06WG20 on 8 July and the fuel pressure is now in the normal range.
• Flat Tire - On July 14th, Brian had a RH Main flat tire on landing at Spirit. The aircraft was towed to a nearby ramp and the tire was temporarily replaced with a spare 4 ply tire that we had in stock so we could taxi it back to our hangar. On 16 July, the temporary 4 ply tire was changed to the required 6 ply tire and the RV returned to service. The flat was caused by a small hole in the sidewall of the inner tube.

N20843 Cessna 172M

• Battery - On July 8th, a new Concord RG-25X/C Battery was installed in the Cessna. A new clamp was also installed to make a tighter engine to airframe ground connection.
• Oil Change On July 11th, the oil and filter were changed. The oil analysis results were excellent and there was no metal found in the oil filter.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Sticking Valve - We had a few reports that the engine was running rough at startup but would then run fine for the run-up and the remainder of the flight. The engine monitor showed it was cylinder No. 3 that was causing the roughness. The symtoms are similar for a fouled plug or a sticking valve. On July 1, Larry and I looked at the Cylinder No. 3 spark plugs and they looked fine. We then removed the No. 3 cylinder Rocker Arm cover and found that the exhaust valve was very tight in the valve. We pushed the valve into the cylinder and reamed out the valve guide to the specified diameter. We cleaned the exhaust valve stem and then reassembled the engine. The engine run-up showed the engine was now running smoothly. A Lycoming publication says that a sticking valve can occur as early as 400 hours after overhaul. Our engine had 399.31 hours since overhaul when it had a sticking valve. Sticking valves can occur due to lead in the oil building up deposits in the valve guide. Leaning on the ground and at cruise will help minimize lead buildup in the oil.

Reaming the exhaust valve guide to remove lead/oil buildup that caused sticking valve

Exhaust valve stem sticking out of spark plug hole so it could be cleaned.

Copyright © 2018, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated July 2019 .