St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 30 May 2015

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

Thanks to everyone who attended our club meeting last month, we had a great turnout and covered some important topics. Please take a look at the minutes from our meeting here, and let me know if you have questions about anything covered. A special thanks also to John Waddell who provided us with some great BBQ to end the meeting!

The biggest news for the month is that John and Kip finished the Arrow panel upgrade! The upgrade is incredible and certainly improves situational awareness. The 750 is highly intuitive and the audio panel in the Arrow now matches the Cessna. During the upgrade, the guys took the opportunity to remove all the old avionics wiring, install a full set of new breakers and create annunciator panels with labels to match which is an added benefit to the upgrade. A huge thank you to John, Kip, Tim Volk, and a few others who helped pitch in to help with the upgrade, it was an extensive effort that has resulted in a greatly improved club aircraft.

Test flight approach to KFYG on May 27th

Close up of panel showing new avionics and engine monitor

Garmin has a series of training videos on their site for the 750 and there is also an application you can download on an iPad to simulate the device before you fly. You may want to familiarize yourself with the unit before traveling any long distances in the Arrow, a couple of our club instructors are getting up to speed on the new avionics quickly.

I’m also happy to report that Geoff Gallaway has been voted in as our next new member. I’m currently communicating with him to arrange final details of his membership which I expect to be complete in the next week or so. Once we complete the transaction with Geoff, we will still have one membership available. We currently have one additional potential member who I will be meeting at the hangar next weekend, be sure to keep an eye out for potential members.

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

As was discussed during the May meeting, there was a lot of financial activity the past month. The one item not changing this month are the monthly dues. They remain $120.

The hourly costs were impacted by the fuel price going up a bit, to $5.55, and adding $3.50/hr to cover the waiving of John Heilmann's dues ( for A&P/AI services). They are now $57, $75 and $98 respectively.

The share value decreased to $10,840 reflecting the awarding of 10 hr Arrow flight time to John H. and Kip for their efforts in the C172/Arrow Avionics Upgrades.

Pic

   Maintenance - by John

N8746V Citabria 7ECA

  • Tail Springs & Tire change - To address a repetitive tail wheel shimmy issue, the tail wheel springs, and tail wheel tire and tube were replaced on 10 May. The old tail wheel springs had relaxed over time and the resultant tail wheel geometry was more prone to shimmying. Since the spring replacement, there have been no reports of tail wheel shimmy.
  • Navigation Lights - The Navigation position lights were upgraded to LED lights on Friday, May 29th.

N20843 Cessna 172M

  • No maintenance issues this month

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

  • Annual Inspection/Upgrade The Annual inspection and Avionics upgrade effort was completed on 27 May. In addition to the annual, the avionics were upgraded with the installation of the Garmin GTN-750 WAAS GPS/NAV/COM, SL-30 NAV/COM, GTX-327 transponder, GMA-340 Audio Panel, GDL-88 ADS-B IN/OUT Data Link, Flight Stream 210 Blue Tooth Link, and the EDM-830 Engine Monitor. The standby Vacuum System was installed with the activation knob located where the old Engine monitor was located. We also added more conveniently located audio input jacks (one located next to the Engine Monitor and one located to the left of the pilot where the old ADF indicator used to be). A USB power outlet was also added to provide power for the pilots IPAD/Android devise without running wires across the instrument panel.


Copyright © 2012, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated May 2015.
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