"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 24 March 2008

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

I was looking forward to seeing everyone at the annual meeting but unfortunately had to go on a last minute business trip. John has scheduled the annual inspection to start on 25 April and it will be nice to do the inspection in our own hangar this year. With Spring finally here, hopefully we will start getting some nice weather for flying.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Our financial position has rebounded as a result of the most recent assessment, putting us very close to where we need to be going into the annual. We'll keep our fingers crossed for low expenses during the annual. Flight hours were average at 9.7 for the month. Prices for 100LL have risen with overall fuel price increases, and our current flight rate has climbed to $64 per hour. JetDirect fuel prices remain $0.15 per gallon below other on-field providers, so please continue to call JetDirect for fuel.

I have been tracking the fuel consumption on the aircraft for the past several months. Our hourly rate is currently based upon the POH consumption estimates of 7.6 GPH, but our actual consumption per tach hour is closer to 8.75 GPH. This means we are under-recovering for fuel in our current hourly rates, essentially subsidizing fuel costs from our general treasury funds. My recommendation is that we use the higher consumption rate in the hourly calculation. For the current month, it would increase the rate to $69 per hour. While I am generally opposed to measures that increase the hourly rate, it is not fair to the members who are not logging flight hours to be subsidizing the fuel costs of those who are flying. If there are no objections to this new fuel calculation method, I will implement it starting on the April statement; please factor that into your budgets when you fly this coming month.

Remember that we also agreed to implement the new fuel reimbursement proposal going forward, so if you fuel the plane off-field you can save yourself some money. Currently St. Charles County, St. Charles, Washington, Festus, and Greenville, IL are showing recent fuel rates that are very favorable. You can go online to check current fuel prices on AirNav ( www.airnav.com/fuel/ ). Provide your receipt for off-field fuel, and you will be reimbursed at the on-field rate!

Annual Meeting Minutes - by Mike Warakomski

St Louis Flying Club
Annual Meeting
3 March 2008

The following members were in attendance:
- John Heilmann
- Mike Warakomski
- Mike Mcbride
- Mike Russell
- Mark Rehwinkel
- Charlie Royce
- Paul Carpenter
Elections were held and all officers were reelected.
- President - Todd Michal
- Vice President - Mike Russell
- Secretary - Mike Warakomski
- Treasurer - Mike McBride
- Maintenance Officer - John Heilmann
Finance report
Mike McBride provided the current details of the club finances. See website for current status.
Maintenance Report
John Heilmann provided details of recent maintenance actions, repairs, and upgrades (Annual 2008 presentation). Club members discussed various items including obtaining a backup vacuum system, oil temp sensor, ELT upgrade requirements in the future, and potential impact of ADS-B.
Membership
Departing member Marlin Sipe sold his share to Paul Carpenter.
Proposal to add higher performance A/C
John Heilmann had found a Bellanca Super Viking along with 7 or 8 individuals willing to join the club along with that aircraft. He provided a well rounded analysis of the impact to us along with the benefits. The show stopper was related to the fact we could not obtain insurance as the aircraft is too much of a step up from a 172. We could be insured if we added an aircraft only "one" step up from a 172. Members generally were interested in the idea of an additional faster aircraft and everyone is encouraged to keep their eyes open for opportunity.
Three items were proposed and voted on.
1. Use the new fuel reimbursement rate based on fuel price available at Spirit. Club members would be reimbursed at the current target rate no matter what the cost was at remote fields. PASSED
2. Proposal to buy and install an oil temperature probe. PASSED
3. Proposal to pay for a 2nd GPS data card for $170.00 to make updates more efficient. PASSED
Club Domain Name Paul Carpenter offered to host a website. This would allow us to have a more descriptive URL. The consensus URL was STLFLYINGCLUB.ORG. John Heilmann is going to evaluate this as he is currently our web master.

Maintenance - by John

Annual Inspection - I currently have the Annual Inspection scheduled from Friday, April 25 through May 4th. During this time, we also plan to install the Engine monitor and rewire the landing light circuit. More to follow on the annual in next months newsletter.

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