St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 24 November 2007

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

Thanks to Mike McBride, Marlin, Mark, and John for troubleshooting and fixing the mag drop/engine roughness problem. It turned out to be a bad plug in the #1 cylinder. Thanks also to Mike McBride and John for installing the engine heater just in time for the cold weather. The heater should help make engine starting much easier during the winter months and reduce wear and tear on the engine.

Thanks for supporting the conference call on the T Hangar vote. We have not heard of any openings for this month so we will continue to wait until one opens up.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Our treasury balance remains negative this month; payment of outstanding balances should have us back near zero next month, so please get those payments in this month. Our adjusted treasury balance is still negative, and will remain so for some time if we rely solely upon the monthly improvement contributions to raise it back to positive levels. Our cash flow is not impacted at this point (we are essentially operating out of our escrow funds), but we will likely need another assessment in the next few months to have us operating out of a viable treasury fund. We'll try to get through the end of the year before straining member bank accounts again. Expect the next assessment in the February timeframe, about the same as our last assessment at $150 per member.

Remember that we are on standby for a hangar at the field. When one comes available we'll factor the cost adjustment into the monthly dues from that month forward. The increased cost will raise our costs from between $20 and $25 per member, per month. For planning purposes, expect the new monthly dues to be at $100 per member.

Fuel prices on the field have been rising slightly, standing now at $4.42 per gallon; this gives us a current flight rate of $59 per hour. Our lowest prices for fuel are still at Sycamore (approximately $0.15 lower than at JetDirect). If you want to contact Sycamore for fuel, you can reach them either by phone at 636-987-2277, or on the radio at 122.7.

Current fuel prices for Sycamore are posted on the AirNav web page (www.airnav.com), and are guaranteed; other on-field prices are shown; those shown for JetDirect are not "guaranteed" (JetDirect does not keep their fuel prices current on the AirNav web site), but you can still use them for comparison purposes (just subtract $0.80 from JetDirect's price).

If you plan to travel cross country, there is a feature on the AirNav web page to help control fuel prices. Under the "Aviation Fuel" tab on the AirNav home page, select the "Plan a Flight with Fuel Stops" item. It will identify the lowest cost fuel stops on the selected route. I haven't had a chance to plan fuel stops on both legs of a round trip ... yet.

Happy Flying!
Mike

   Maintenance - by John

Maintenance Squawks - Mark reported that when switching to left mag only, the RPM would drop 200-250 RPM and the engine would run very rough. Troubleshooting led to a bad spark plug on the #1 cylinder. The spark plug was replaced with a new REM40E plug and the LH Mag was removed, inspected and the ignition wire contact points were cleaned. The engine was ops checked and the RPM drop on both mags was normal (less than 100 on each mag).

Oil Change - The oil and filter was changed on 19 November at 4215 hours (tach Time). An oil sample was sent in for analysis. The next oil change is due at 4265 hours.

Engine Heater - The Reiff engine heater was installed on 20 November. This heater heats both the oil pan and each cylinder as shown in the photo of the Reiff system below.

The plug for the heater is mounted just inside the pilot side cowl air inlet. The following table shows the heat raise obtained by the Reiff engine heater if the aircraft is inside an unheated Hangar at 22° (no wind) with a blanket over the cowl. Our heat rise will be less, without a cowl blanket especially if it is windy.

We tested the heater on Friday night. We turned it on at about 6:00 pm Friday night and went flying at 1:30PM Saturday afternoon. WIthout having a cowl blanket, the cylinders felt like they were about 70-80 degrees. I used 3 shots of primer (my normal summer prime) and the engine started right up within 2 revolutions. The engine also ran very smooth from the start, unlike normal cold weather starting where it takes it awhile to run smoothly.

Aviation consumer did a test on leaving the heater (one with both cylinder head and oil sump heater) plugged in all the time and it did not lead to an increase in humidity in the engine. I think we can leave it plugged in as long as the temperatures are forecast to be in the 30's and there is some activity on the schedule. If someone flies and does not plug the heater in after the flight, I recommend the person send an email to everyone that the heater is off so everyone can plan accordingly. You don't want to arrive for a flight thinking the heater is on only to find that it is off.

Copyright © 1999, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated Nov 2007.