St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 26 March 2014

From The President - By Charley

Members:

And finally, some good weather is upon us! The flight hours certainly picked up near the end of this month as the welcomed warmer weather began to nudge out old man winter.

A big thanks to John and Kip for putting a battery minder on the Arrow to keep the battery fully charged when there is a long gap between flights. The minder connects near the same plug used for the engine heater and has a protective cap to be put on the plug when not in use. The minder has worked so well, John will be purchasing and installing another one for the Cessna to improve battery life and eliminate batteries draining between flights. Please remember to plug the minder back in after flying.

Steve Heidenreich scheduled our next club meeting for May 17th, thanks Steve! As has become the norm, it looks like we will be having a brief cookout after the meeting for socializing also, so plan on sticking around a bit afterwards if you are able. The Club Officers will be getting together on April 19th with the Improvement Committee to discuss recommendations for aircraft upgrades and other agenda items to be discussed at our May meeting. If you have an item you would like to see put on the agenda for the May meeting please drop me a note as soon as you are able. Our goal is to get an agenda out to members no later than 7 days before each meeting to give everyone time to be thinking about items to be discussed. It would be ideal if we could get your agenda items for review before the April 19th Officer meeting.

The Flying League created by T.J. will kick off on April 1st, I’m hearing some good feedback from members about the opportunity. Since it appears the weather is going to break soon, I look forward to hearing about our first points scored in April……..will it be you?

See you all at the airport!

Safe flights,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

This month's average gas price was $6.44 (up $.28), raising the hourly costs to $79 and $104. Dues stayed the same at $121. Share value decreased to $10,637. I added the credit card "cash back" balance to the statement, currently up to $350. That's for info only, I don't include it in the share value.

Fly Safely!

PIC

   Maintenance - by John

N20843

• No maintenance actions this month

N2242N

• Gear Down Lights - On 22 Feb, we had a squawk that the gear down lights did not come on when the gear was lowered in flight. The gear felt like they were down and after flying by the tower and getting the word that the gear looked down, the plane landed with no issues. On the previous flight, the plane was flown at night and I suspected that the panel light dimmer switch was left in the "on" position which dims the gear down lights to where they are impossible to see during the day. During the preflight check in the closed hanger, it is dark enough that you can see that the lights are on but once up flying in the sunlight, you can no longer see that the lights are lit. To be sure this was the cause, the plane was put on jacks and the gear swung 3 times and there were good gear down light indications each time.

  See the warning for this that is in the pilots handbook and the photo of where the panel light dimming switch is located.

  

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