St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 18 March 1999

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

I want to thank Randy for all the effort he has put in to trying to get the directional gyro fixed. As you know, it was overhauled, but it starts to spin wildly after 15 to 20 minutes in the air. Randy pulled it and took it to get repaired, under warranty, but it was doing the same thing when it was returned. Randy, and other members wanting to use the plane, are really frustrated with the situation. Last I know, Randy was going to have them do warranty repairs once more before throwing in the towel.

We are in the crunch time of the year, as far as club finances are concerned. The recent radio repairs (correcting the misalignment of the frequency display) will whittle the treasury down to about $200. The annual is coming due and the insurance is due at the end of April. I hope the insurance is lower this year since there will at least be a couple more insurers to go out for bids (there was only two companies willing to provide bids with our previous older, 80+, membership roster).

In order to build up the treasury for the annual, Marlin suggested a one time assessment. I feel an assessment of $100 will probably be sufficient. Marlin will analyze the situation again next month.

Happy Landings,

Mike Piccirilli

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

We don't have enough in the treasury to cover the annual in April. The insurance is also due in April. As a result, we don't have enough in the checking account to cover both of them, so we are having a special assessment now to make sure we have the funds to pay for them both. To come up with the amount, I made an estimate of what will be in the treasury after everyone pays this month's bill, and after the other expenses. Then I figured out how much each person would have to pay to bring the treasury up to what the annual cost was last year ($830). By the way, that was after a discount for us doing some of the labor. If no problems are found this year, it could be lots less, and we'll have a head start in the treasury for the coming year. Of course, it could go the other way and cost more, in which case we will assess the following month to cover the balance. It works out that about $80 per member should give us the $830.

The insurance is also due in April. The combination of the annual and insurance will put the checking account below the minimum balance, and well be hit with a maintenance fee by the bank. If we are not under by a LOT, I will pay some extra to avoid that... as a matter of principal. Then I'll just have a balance on account here to cover future months. Todd's wife (she pays the bills) indicated she would be willing to help out in the same way.

Well, well see how things look next month.

   Maintenance Corner - from Marlin Sipe

As of the time I'm writing this, the plane is still down. The Directional Gyro (DG) is giving us problems. It was spinning after flying for a while, so it was pulled for repair under warranty. They thought they found the problem, with a couple of screws that had backed out on the rotor. The DG was reinstalled, and it was still spinning after flying for a while. So it was pulled again and taken back for repairs. I know Randy is driving quite a few miles to take it back and forth. Hopefully it will really be fixed this time when it comes back. Randy looked at prices for a new (rebuilt?) DG, and the cost for that would be over $400.

When the DG was pulled, the #1 Nav was also pulled. It was having problems with the frequency selector, requiring some jiggling and turning slightly off the detent to get a signal. I was uneasy about flying it IFR, especially since it is also the ILS receiver. According to the bill, the following was done to it: "Clean and align VOR, install spacer on OBS knob. Cleaned frequency switches, repaired broken solder on wire in receiver, repositioned frequency knob stopper that slipped. Aligned VOR and localizer. Bench tested unit to manufacturer's specs."

PAST NEWSLETTERS - Newsletter Archive