"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 19 May 2003

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

The plane has successfully passed its annual inspection. Thanks to Randy, John, Marlin, and Todd for helping out. The total bill was just over $1,000, which wasn't too bad. No big surprises. Marlin and John have more details in their section. I had a go at spray painting and repairing/strengthening some of the green plastic interior panels in the baggage compartment. They turned out pretty well but I ran out of paint. I ordered some more and also ordered a replacement for one of the smaller pieces that literally fell apart in my hands.

I've authorized Marlin to have a special assessment to get us even since the treasury was insufficient to cover the entire annual expense.

I ran an appraisal on the plane. It is now worth, $44,790.76, let's call it $45,000. The reduced value is from the base valuation dropping by about $2,000 and the cumulative reduction in value of more total time on the airframe and more hours since overhaul. Todd is checking to see if we can get a reduction on our insurance. There are actually some "new" 172s (1998) that are being listed for less than $90,000 now. That's putting downward pressure on the older prices.

John, please schedule a club meeting. Discussion items can be general finances, voting for club officers, and priorities on aircraft enhancements.

Happy Landings!
Pic

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

Good news. Last month the fuel price went up to $3.05 at JetCorp, but this month it came back down to $2.95. JetCorp's cost has gone back up, but they expect it to come back down so they are not raising the price again (yet). We will leave the hourly rate the same, instead of raising it $1 as proposed last month.

I gave JetCorp my AOPA credit card number to use for our fuel. The 5% rebate on JetCorp fuel should give $100 or so back to the club each year. For the fuel that is charged to my credit card, I will just show 95% of it as a credit for me on the bill, which passes the rebate to the club. All the amounts will be explained in notes on the bill just like any other credits, and I will put copies of my credit card bills in the club records with the other receipts. For other than JetCorp (e.g. getting cheap fuel at Smartt) we can all continue to keep the rebates as a small bonus for making the effort.

If I reach the $250 annual rebate limit, I will stop showing fuel rebates for the remainder of the year. If I get the commercial complex time this summer, I may hit that limit this year, but generally I won't come close to the limit.

The cost of the Annual at $1006.69 was a little less than we thought it might be. I thought the new spark plugs, tire, fuel line and fuel drain, plus the labor for some of those items could give us a surprise on the price, but it wasn't bad. A copy of the bill from C-D is available at Annual Bill

The vacuum pump last fall and the recent attitude indicator really took a bite out of the Treasury, and as a result we came up short on money for the Annual. The bill this month includes a special assessment to cover the difference between the Annual ($1007) and the amount we had last month ($587), or $60 per person. Then this month starts us on the new year, which will hopefully be better.

Maintenance - by John Heilmann

Annual Inspection - The annual inspection was conducted on April 25 & 26. The annual inspection was completed on Saturday but the aircraft was not returned to service until May 2 as we had to wait for the wing fuel drain valve and fuel line parts to arrive at C&D. The following work was accomplished during the annual:

Replaced the right main tire and regreased all wheel bearings
Replaced the spark plugs
Replaced Air Filter Element
Cleaned engine and belly of aircraft
Tested ELT per FAR 91.207
Retimed right magneto
Inspected seat track and rollers per AD 87-20-03R2
Tightened the oil fill tube and resafety wired it.
Replaced loose rivet in the vertical tail leading edge fairing
Replaced the fuel line from the firewall to the carburetor
Serviced the battery and cleaned the battery box
Repaired crack in right hand wheel pant fairing
Replaced brake pads and bled brakes
Serviced nose strut and nose wheel shimmy damper.
Adjusted mixture control to full travel

The right hand elevator was inspected and the dent is considered negligable damage and is acceptable. To remove the dent, the elevator would require reskinning which would run approximately $1500.

The mixture controll was adjusted and the carburator arm control moves from the full open stop to the full closed stop. Even with full travel, the engine still has a tendancy to "run on" a little when shutting down. To prevent this from occuring, apply a little power (increase about 100 - 200 RPM) prior to pulling back mixture control to cutoff position.

BFR/Medicals Due - by Todd Michal

Thanks for keeping me up to date on your medical and BFR changes. According to my records, here are the only items due in the next few months:

Upcoming expirations include:

Randy Skyles - Medical in June 2003.
Mike Piccirilli - Medical in June 2003.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot and 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%:

The links above take you to Kip's FAA written Test Preparation Site. This site can be found directly at: http://w3.one.net/~kip/faatest.html

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