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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 May 2023

From The President - By Steve

Dear Members,

Last month saw many members taking advantage of the nice weather. Brian Williams, Mike Piccirilli, Brad Hansen and John Heilmann volunteered their services to fly kids in a Young Eagles event out of Wings of Hope. All of the club planes were there along with Brad’s Bonanza and they were able to give flights to over 35 kids. The event was well organized by Brian.

See TJ’s message about the upcoming assessment for the Cessna engine and plan accordingly.

Thanks to John and Larry for completing the yearly condition assessment on the RV and also dealing with dead batteries in the Arrow and Cessna. It takes a lot of work to maintain three planes.

Steve

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

BILLING STATEMENT

Comments:

• Great to see everyone at the meeting last month! Please keep those receipts coming.
• As discussed at the meeting, we have raised the rate by $5 per hour on each of the aircraft. We finally saw some declines in the fuel price so we have a nice increase in dollars going to the maintenance funds this month.
• We have received notice that the new engine for the Cessna will soon be available and as such, we will be billing the $1,500 assessment on the June 15, 2023 billing statement. We anticipate making the final payment in late July and will receive the new engine in early August.
• Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

BALANCE SHEET

• Thanks to Pic for updating the aircraft valuations as of May 15, 2023. The new valuations are reflected on the balance sheet.
• Our cash position continues to be strong. In the next billing cycle, we will assess the $36,000 approved at the Fall 2022 meeting and then make payment of ~$66,000 in late July. The funds spent will sit on our balance sheet in "Work in Progress" until the Cessna is returned to service with the new engine. At that point, the Cessna valuation will be adjusted.
• Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

Dues

• As a reminder, our dues are currently allocated as follows:

   Maintenance - by John

N202CR RV-7A

• Condition inspection completed - The condition inspection was completed on May 10th. The new Surefly Electronic ignition unit was installed in place of the old Lightspeed Electronic ignition system. Pilot operation is the same as it was with the old system except that you will notice a more balanced mag drop of about 40-50 RPM for both the Left (Surefly) and Right (Slick Mag).
• Battery Replacement - On Friday morning June 2nd, Steve tried to start the RV for a flight but the battery failed. Steve was able to pick up a replacement Odyssey Extreme battery (ODS-AGM16L) at a Battery Plus in Creve Coeur and we were able to install it and have it ready for Steve to fly in the afternoon. Not sure if this is related on not, but we sometimes see the battery charger is not fully inserted in the aircraft plug. Please make sure the battery charger cable is fully inserted in to the aircraft plug after your flight. You can check that it is by looking at the lights on the charger to see if it shows a solid green light for charging or a blinking green light for maintaining.

N20843 Cessna 172M

• Battery Replacement On May 22nd, the battery in the Cessna failed to start the engine at the KSUS Self Serve pump. We jump started the plane and got it back to the hangar. The battery was 4 years old. We ordered a new Concord RG25XC battery and installed it on May 25th.

• Oil Change On May 29th, we changed the Oil and filter and cut open the oil filter. There was no metal in the filter. We sent an oil sample in for analysis.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Battery Replacement - On May 25th, Larry was trying to start the Arrow for a flight but after the starter turned a few times, there was not enough battery power and you could just hear the solenoid clicking. The battery was 3.5 years old. We ordered a new battery but it wasn't scheduled to arrive until May 29th. We installed a spare battery that Jerry Rettinger had until ours arrived and was installed.

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