St Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 18 May 2001

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

A lot has happened this past month. Thanks to John, Randy, Marlin, and Todd who helped out on the annual and transporting the plane back and forth. It seems our notional $800 annual estimate for the annual was exceeded once again. The clubs finances are getting alot of discussion with the issues of the insurance, annual cost, and fuel costs. I have authorized a special assessment to get back to a zero balance and increased dues to cover the monthly shortfall. Marlin will explain the treasury situation in his section and John will be calling a meeting shortly so we can discuss the issues in person.

Todd provides a detailed status of the insurance situation in the following article. It looks like a more affordable solution will be available shortly.

I tried the Pay Pal bill paying method and so far it seems painless enough. I am anxious to hear your feedback on this and other subjects at this club meeting. Please send me any other issues you would like to discuss.

Happy Landings!
Pic

For the past several years we have used the Nation Air Insurance Agency to locate the best insurance policy for our club. As you know, earlier this year we provided Nation Air with updated information on our clubs plane and pilots. Nation Air then began a search of aviation insurance providers to find the best rate for our club. Three weeks before our current policy expired, Nation Air informed me that the best rate they could find was with our existing provider US Specialty Insurance Co. and that the yearly premium had sky rocketed to $3,805. This was a $1,400 increase over the premium we paid last year. In addition, they told me that of all the providers that they checked with only two, USSIC and Phoenix Aviation Managers would insure a flying club such as ours.

Because of the short time period before our existing policy expired, I discussed the situation with Pic and we decided that there was not enough time to try and find another insurance carrier before our current policy ran out. I renewed our policy with USSIC on April 25 over the phone. Nation Air sent us an invoice for the premium and a new application to fill out. I filled out the application (thanks Randy for helping to answer some of the questions) and had Marlin write a check to Nation Air for $3,805.

Our new policy provides the same liability coverage as before, $100,000 per person, $1,000,000 each occurrence with medical payments of $3,000 per person. The hull coverage on the aircraft was increased to $49,250 and covers damage while in motion or while not in motion. This policy can be cancelled at any time with a 10% penalty on the remaining premium.

After receiving suggestions from several of the club members, I began an independent search for an insurance policy with a lower premium. So far I have contacted AVEMCO Insurance and Missouri General. Missouri General is another insurance broker and will search for a policy for us after I return an application form. Initially AVEMCO gave me a quote over the phone of $4,000 for our club. As you know, this is substantially higher than the premium that the Milco flying club is paying (Jeff SchubertŐs previous club). I then contacted the Milco club and we were not able to identify any factors that would significantly affect the premiums between our two clubs other than the location (they are based in Milwaukee). I contacted AVEMCO again to see if we could identify the source of the discrepancy. AVEMCO asked me to fill out a paper application with all of our clubs info. After sending in the paper version of our clubs info, AVEMCO informed me that the premium for our club would be $2400. This is for the same coverage that we are receiving from USSIC.

Once we receive the fianlized quote from AVEMCO, we plan to contact Nationair and tell them about the estimate disparity and see what their reaction is. If Nationair doesn't reduce their cost, we plan to cancel our policy with Nation Air and switch to AVEMCO.

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

Everything was looking good financially with over $1200 for the Annual in the Treasury, until we got the insurance quote. The insurance was about $1000 more than last year, which took a big piece of the Treasury. This caused us to come up short on money, so I talked to Mike Piccirilli and we are having a special assessment of $95/member to cover the current shortage. This is 1/7 of my guess at what the shortage will be (my best guess before having all the actual numbers), and should bring us back to zero to start this year. The monthly dues are also increasing because of the higher insurance cost. As you know, dues are your monthly share of insurance, shade-port and personal property tax. Divided equally, the cost per member now comes to $72.89, which is being rounded to $75. The extra $10 that was approved at the last meeting will remain until the members vote otherwise, raising the total montly dues to $85. Once we switch to the Avemco insurance, the dues will be reduced accordingly. Sometimes I take a quick look at fuel receipts and flight times as a sanity check to make sure we aren't being billed for a refueling we didn't get. I noticed that sometimes the amount of fuel is a little high for the amount of flight time, and I'm guessing it's because the mixture is not being leaned all the time. Even on local flights it can make a difference. I don't know what it burns at full rich, but I'd guess at least a couple gallons per hour more than when leaned. If leaning the mixture saves 2 gph, at $2.50/gallon that's a significant savings on those short flights.

   Maintenance - by John Heilmann
The annual was completed on 4/25/01. The total cost was $1,038.15. In addition to the annual inspection, the following repairs or maintenance was completed:

1. Landing Light circuit breaker replaced
2. Air Filter/Cowl Seal Assembly
3. Fuel Cap Gasket
4. Replaced Cowl Shock mounts
5. Replaced 3 brake Linings
6. Replaced Air Filters
7. Bleed brakes
8. Cleaned corrosion from battery Box
9. Tightened Oil Filler Tube (was causing minor oil leak)
10. Retimed both magnetos

Our club received an Owner Advisory from Cessna that Service Bulletin SEB99-18R1A was issued to inspect the fuel quantity indicating system. The inspection is to assure that each fuel tank quantity quage indicates "EMPTY" when the fuel tank contains only unusable fuel and indicates "FULL" when the fuel tank is full. The service bulletin is to be considered an ammendment to the Cessna Service/Maintenance Manual and must be accomplished for ongoing airworthiness compliance. The SEB states that the initial inspection shall be accomplished within the next 100 hours or 12 month, whichever occurs first. The inspection shall then be reaccomplished every 12 months thereafter.

Even though the Service Bulletins says "Compliance is Mandatory", the FAA in a letter to AOPA concurred that compliance with SBs is not mandatory for non-air carrier aircraft owners and operators unless specifically mandated by an AD. FAA policy guidance states that a small airplane design approval holder cannot unilaterally impose mandatory compliance of a manufacturer's SB without FAA involvement. In any case, we will request a copy of the Service Bulletin to see what inspection is required.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot or Instrument Rating Written Test by taking a quick 10 question test. Submit your answers and you will receive the correct answers and your score. (Don't worry, only you see the test results and your score.) This is a quick and easy way to keep familiar with the FARs. Use the links below and try to get a 100% on either the Private or Instrument Rating questions:

• Private Pilot Questions
• FAA Instrument Test Questions

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