St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 March 1992

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

I'd like to formally greet our new member, Leonard Newmark, to the club. Leonard and Bill exchanged check and keys Mar 9, 1992. Bill checked Leonard out on the idiosyncracies of our 172 and Leonard has flown it. Welcome Leonard! On the other hand, I can confidently say that all the members will miss the leadership, mechanical abilities, and hard work Bill Wagner has supplied to the club over the past 10 years. Happy retirement and best wishes to both Bill and Carol!

As you can see from the billinq statement, the treasury was given a boost by the insurance check for the spinner repairs and "loss of use" compensation. The ease in which this insurance company dealt with "loss of use" and repair claims was such a far cry from how St. Louls County is treating us for the "towing" incident that it prompted me to write the enclosed letter to "Buzz Westfall". Nothing ventured, nothing gained! By the way, the club's case had a court date on March 10 but we were 18th on the docket and never got called. Charlie continues to work towards getting our case heard.

I've been getting some quotes on insurance and they run the gamut. We currently pay $1724 and the quotes, so far, run $1666 to $2430. Some companies are refusing to give us quotes (age of members). I am learning alot about liability coverage. Even though our current policy is for one million $, our current policy will pay no more than $100,000 per person injured, no more than $25,000 for your spouse, no more than $12,500 for a parent or chiId, and no medical payments for any occupants. I definitely intend to upgrade this liability coverage (most likely thru a different company).

Also enclosed is a draft of the club constitution and by-laws which I have revised to more accurately reflect how I feel we currently or should operate. Please read and mark up your copy with revisions or questions. I've also included a new club roster.

Charlle McMullin has been gratious to let us use his residence for a club meeting on Wednesday, April 15, at 7:30. I would like to cover the following topics at the meeting; approval of a new constitution and by-laws, vote on club officers, discussion on insurance, discussion on adding an 8th member, and upgrades to the aircraft.

Happy Landings,

Mike Piccirilli

Dear Mr. Westfall:

I am writing to you both as a county resident who is concerned with county employee's not acting in the best interest of it's residents and as the principal in a lawsuit that has been brought against the county.

I am the current President of the St. Louis Flying Club. The county, through the employees of Spirit of St. Louis Airport, damaged our club's aircraft in June 1989. Though the outwardly apparent damages were repaired by September 1989, my club continues to be in litigatlon, cause # 21C9005527, with the lawyers of St. Louis County for loss of 2 months use, hidden damages and depreciation for damages.

One of the reasons for the delay of this case being resolved is the county lawyers demanding to have the case heard by a Jury. As a county resident, I don't understand why a case, dealing with a relatively minor amount of money, is worth adding to the county court backlog, using up the time of county residents for a Jury and costing the county residents for the 2 1/2 years of county lawyers time.

Our club has been eager to settle this matter out of court since September 1989. We have gotten absolutely no response from the county lawyers toward making this happen. One of my first actions, after being elected president last year, was to go around our lawyer and send a letter to the Spirit Airport administration requesting an out of court settlement. I received no response.

I am writing you now in the hope that reason and fairness can prevail. I would be wllllng to do away with the lawyers and have an arbitrator hear the facts ln the dispute and abide by his decision as to a fair settlement. I appreciate your time spent in this matter.

Sincerely,

Mlchael C. Picclrilli
Pres. St. Louis Flying Club

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