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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 22 November 2010 |
From The President - By Todd Michal
Happy Thanksgiving,
Thanks to everyone for attending the club meeting on 29 Oct. We had good attendance as 13 out of 16 members were able to make it. Mike Warakomski emailed a copy of the meeting minutes earlier this month and they are included in this months newsletter as well.
John called and said he forgot to include the upgrade option to improve the instrument lighting on the Cessna. It is difficult to see some of the instruments at night, especially the airspeed indicator. John is looking at the various lighting options and will send out an email with the options and pricing for discussion.
It looks like the great weather we have been enjoying has finally caught up with us. Hopefully we will still have some good flying weather for the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Takeoffs!
Todd
Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride
Fuel prices at TACAir remained stable again this month; hourly rates for the C172 and Arrow remain at $64 and $87, respectively. Flight hours were again strong at 22 for the C172 and 28 for the Arrow.
The treasury balance is at just over $1,500; the adjusted treasury is in the red at ($833), reflective of the over-paid balances carried for several members. Fuel charges this month were higher than normal, which was expected due to the high flight hours last month.
We received a notice with our monthly bill from FlySpirit reminding County T-Hangar residents that the ends of the hangars are "No Parking" zones; please avoid parking at the end of the hangars. Cars should be parked in the hangars when flying, and cars that will not fit into the hangars should be parked in the outside parking lot (TACAir lot).
Mike
Maintenance - by John 
N20843
- Nose Wheel Fairing - The fiberglass repair of the nose wheel fairing is underway. Fiberglass plies were added and the filler/primer/sanding activity is underway. Once the nose wheel fairing and new wing tips are located and drilled, I plan to get them all painted to match the existing Cessna paint color (Jet Glo Marathon White).
- Wing Tips - The new wing tips arrived this week and will be located and drilled this weekend.
- Panel Dimmer Light Knobs - A replacement knob was ordered from Texas Air Salvage and will be installed as soon as it arrives.
N2242N
- Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed on 22 Nov and Philips X/C 20W50 oil was added.
- GPS Signal Dropouts - The GPS signal dropout was caused by the ELT. When we would broadcast on frequencies near 121.5, the signal would be picked up by the ELT antenna and get into the output circuitry of the ELT. Even though the ELT was not on or broadcasting, the transistors in the ELT RF amplifier would clip or rectify the signal and generate lots of harmonics or multiples of the original frequency. These harmonics would then radiate from the ELT antenna and interfere with the WAAS GPS signal. This was not an issue with the non WAAS GPS but is with the more sensitive WAAS GPS. A Garmin Notch filter was added to the ELT antenna circuitry and now filters out the interfering frequencies. This should address the GPS dropout issue until we decide to get a new 406MHz ELT which has internal filters to address this issue.
- Door Seal - The new door seal does a great job sealing out the airflow, but it is still harder to latch and unlatch the door than we would like. We will work to adjust the door seal, latches and hinge position to try and make it easier to open and close the latches.
- Electric Trim - The electric trim has been operating intermittently. The photo below shows the Piper Trim Servo located just behind the baggage compartment. When the trim switch is depressed, the electric trim motor rotates and a solenoid lifts the drive plate with the cork material. The friction of the cork on the capstan rotates the capstan and should move the trim cable thats wrapped around it. The intermittent electric trim operation we have experienced is typically caused by the cork drive wheel slipping against the capstan or the trim cables slipping around the capstan. I ordered a service manual for the Trim Servo and will adjust it when the manual arrives.
Minutes of Annual Meeting - by Mike Warakomski
The 2010 Annual Meeting of the St Louis Flying Club was held on 29 Oct 2010 at the Wings of Hope facility at KSUS. Members Present: Paul Carpenter, Jeff Evitts, John Heilmann, Dale Hiltner, Mike McBride, Todd Michal, Shiv Patil, Mike Piccirilli, Charlie Royce, Phillip Self, Chris Tebbe, Mike Warakomski, Bob Zbylut.
Members not Present: James O’Shea, Mike Russell, and Mike Landgraf.
The meeting was opened at about 7:05 PM
Bob Zyblut presented an interesting DVD showing what Wings of Hope is and what it does throughout the world.
The following agenda items were addressed in detail.
- This was the first meeting for many of the new members, introductions were made by all.
- Presidents Report.
- calendar with the known 2011 events was shown. This will be posted on the website and everyone is encouraged to use this for information.
- Personal Property tax: We only pay property tax on items owned on 1 Jan of any year. The Arrow was purchased after 1 Jan 2010 so no taxes will be due in April 2011. PP tax will only need to be paid on the Skyhawk in 2011.
- Our insurance rate has gone up substantially. The rate we had in 2009 was a teaser rate to entice the club to change companies.
- Questions have been raised as to the filing requirements for our club with the state and IRS. No one knew for sure what the requirements are, so several members are looking into this. We may need to hire a lawyer to get us on track.
- Financial Report
- Mike McBride will provide a detailed financial report at years end.
- Arrow equity fund is short as no allowance was made for paying a use tax (think sales tax).
- Limited Member Dues Structure.
- Mike went through a chart showing the build up of the maintenance fund for each aircraft. The result was that the maintenance portion of the hourly rate will remain the same at this time.
- Limited Member Upgrade requirement
- Discussion was held regarding the limited vs. full membership classes. The discussion centered on how much complexity is creeping into the accounting process to reflect all the different scenarios of equipment purchase, upgrades, insurance, etc.
A motion was made and seconded to change the bylaws that the limited memberships will be eliminated after 31 December 2012. This will require all limited memberships to be upgraded to full memberships by the end of 2012. If a limited member does not want to upgrade, they will have to sell their interest as a full share and the delta between the limited share price and the full share price will be paid to the club. Alternatively, the club will sell his share for him and once the share is sold the club will pay the limited member the current limited share price. The motion passed with thirteen (13) votes for and zero (0) votes against.
- Discussion was held regarding the limited vs. full membership classes. The discussion centered on how much complexity is creeping into the accounting process to reflect all the different scenarios of equipment purchase, upgrades, insurance, etc.
- Maintenance Status – John Heilmann
- Arrow GPS dropout. This still occurs when transmitting near Spirit ground frequency. Crosstalk in the ELT system is the cause John is working to provide a fix. A solution appears near.
- There is a small oil leak in the Cessna that will be fixed in the future.
- Upgrade proposals. Many upgrades were described with discussion.
- Arrow: Altitude hold in the autopilot. Very expensive
- Arrow: 406 MHz ELT. These are not yet required and the current cost of one is $585.00. Installing this would also eliminate the GPS dropout.
- Backup vacuum system. Several schemes are available with varying costs and effectiveness. The electric attitude indicator seems to provide the best backup. Todd Michal and Bob Zyblut will investigate this option and report at the next meeting.
- Air/Oil separators installed on the crankcase breather will reduce/eliminate the oil stains on the belly.
- Rosen sun visors are available for the Skyhawk for about $325.00 using the improvement funds. A motion was made to purchase these out of the improvement funds. The motion was approved by all members present.
- ADS-B functionality was described and benefits do exist, but mandatory installation is still years off and the cost is still very high. We are not going to purchase at this time.
- Many options to add near real time weather capability to the aircraft were discussed.
- A motion was made and seconded: Purchase an AERA 510 unit and install it into the Arrow. The motion passed with nine (9) votes for and zero (0) votes against. Note Since this was for the Arrow only full members voted and limited members will not be paying for this.
- Elections of 2011 Officers
- President: Todd Michal was nominated and elected
- Vice President: Chris Tebbe was nominated and elected
- Secretary: Mike Warakomski was nominated and elected
- Treasurer: Mike McBride was nominated and elected
- Maintenance Officer:John Heilmann was nominated and elected
- Other Business
- It was agreed that we hold additional meetings throughout the year.
- General membership meetings every 6 months
- Officer meetings held in between the 2 general meetings.
- This did not require a bylaws change
- It was also decided that there is no need to change the 4/5ths vote required to change the bylaws.
- Scheduling policy discussions were held to further define usage over weekends. No one wanted to over complicate and over control the process, so the following change was made and we will see how it goes.
- A proposal was made and seconded
No one can reserve the aircraft more than 4 full weekend days per month. Use of both aircraft count towards this total. A full weekend day is defined as 6 daylight hours or more. The motion passed with thirteen (13) votes for and zero (0) votes against.
- A proposal was made and seconded
- It was agreed that we hold additional meetings throughout the year.
- A suggestion was made to require recurrent training of some sort. The idea being, other than the obvious safety focus, was it may possibly help with keeping insurance rates as low as possible. Discussion revealed that the insurance company doesn’t really care; the rates are for a club regardless of the training. Other clubs make a point to show their insurance companies their safety record in an attempt to keeps rates reasonable. Everyone felt that we need to look at ideas like this to try to keep costs down. No motion was made to pursue anything formally. It was suggested that everyone participate in the wings program as following this path can count as your biennial. Chris Tebbe will investigate options with the insurance company during the next annual renewal.
- Chris Tebbe is working on new software for our club website that will provide enhanced capability of various kinds
- Philip Self volunteered to organize the cleaning supplies in the hangers. This will help everyone use the correct stuff to clean the aircraft.
- The meeting was adjourned at about 9 PM. Bob Zyblut gave a tour of the Wings of Hope facility after the meeting.
Copyright © 1999, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated November 2010.