St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 30 November 2014

From The President - By Charley

Happy Thanksgiving:

It was great to see everyone at our November meeting. Thanks to Steve Heidenreich for capturing the minutes which can be found in the next section.

We received a brief explanation of the excellent upgrades to the Cessna from John and Kip. The ADS-B in/out is fully functional and provides traffic and weather information to the pilot. We voted also to install full ADS-B in the Arrow with a Garmin GTN750 and similar ADS-B equipment. The 430 along with some other equipment in the Arrow will be sold to pay for a portion of the upgrade. The slides John presented at the meeting are attached to the end of the minutes document for information. Feel free to contact John or Kip if you have questions about the installation. The Cessna installation is highly professional and will certainly ensure that the airplane stays relevant for many years to come.

We decided to table the additional aircraft discussion until a smaller committee could look at options. The 182 proposal presented was simply an option to demonstrate the economics of adding another aircraft to the club. The discussion primarily revolved around exactly what type of aircraft would be most in demand. It appears that flight hours on the Cessna will surpass those on the Arrow this year, due in part to the type of flying most of our members prefer as well as the low cost and high quality of the aircraft. Given that trend, it seems that the better direction might be to pursue another aircraft low in cost to operate that is more "fun" flying as opposed to "go places" flying.

Upgrades to the Arrow will begin near the annual inspection in the Spring and the group looking at the additional aircraft question should be back with other options in the next couple of weeks.

I wish everyone a great Thanksgiving holiday and will talk to you next month!

Charley

2014 Annual Meeting Minutes - Steve Heidenreich

Minutes – November 1, 2014 Meeting St. Louis Flying Club

Attending were Charley Royce, John Heilmann, Mike Piccirilli, Chris Tebbe, Steve Heidenreich, Mike Landgraf, Kip McCullen, Todd Michal, TJ Smyka and Bob Zbylut.

Meeting opened.

Charley Royce discussed action items from previous meeting. Dom Bausano has updated the Club Handbook and members are directed to send Dom any changes. Another flight instructor was designated and after a checkout by Pic will be available to provide checkouts in the club airplanes. His name is Pat McKinney and he has a website at www.patricksflightinstruction.com. Members are advised that the storage area in the NE corner of the hangar is coming open in January for approximately $150/mth and any suggestions on whether to rent that space should be forwarded to the club officers. Painting the hangar floor is on hold for now as that is a warm weather project. The lockers for the club members will soon be ordered by Chris Tebbe, and Mike Landgraf and Steve Heidenreich have volunteered to assist in delivery. There are currently 7 candidates on the waiting list for membership in the club.

Chris Tebbe gave an update on insurance regarding purchase of another plane. A 182 would only require a simple check ride vs the 10 hours now required for the Arrow. We also need to keep our member to plane ratio below 10.

Mike Piccirilli gave the Treasurers report. Average flight time on the 172 has been increasing while the Arrow is decreasing. Our adjusted Treasury balance is around $18.000 and the engine funds for both airplanes are deemed adequate. Current aircraft valuations are $57,347 for the 172 and $70,132 for the Arrow. Current share value is $10,935.

John described the upgrades completed on the Cessna and planned for the Arrow. The Cessna now equipped with ADS B in/out, the Aera was relocated on the panel, a standby vacuum system installed, panel lights upgraded. The Arrow upgrades to be completed at next annual to include ADS B in/out, panel with Garmin GTN750 upgrade, removal of the ADF, and installation of the EDM 830 engine monitor.

There were 2 votes held for expenditures on airplane upgrades. A motion and second by McCullen and Landgraf to install a FliteStream 210 at an approximate cost of $650 in the Cessna was passed by a vote of 11 to 2. A motion and second by Piccirilli and Michal to upgrade the Arrow panel with a Garmin GTN 750 (as shown below) at an approximate cost of $10750 was passed by a vote of 11 to 2. There is money in the Treasury to cover both upgrades.

There was a discussion about adding an airplane and 8 members to the club. A committee consisting of John Heilmann, Chris Tebbe, TJ Smyka and Mike Piccirilli was formed to investigate member interest, types of planes (2, 4, 6 passenger, LS, amphibious) and how and when to add members.

Elections were held for Club Officers. Chris Tebbe indicated a desire to step down at the end of his term and TJ Smyka was nominated for the VP position. All other officers ran unopposed with 13 members (10 present and 3 proxy) voting as follows:

It was decided the Improvement Committee had served its purpose and would be disbanded.

Meeting closed.

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

A couple of large expenses hit the books this month (Arrow hydraulic pump, 172 GPS database and the Transponder/Static system checks) but not much change to the values. Gas went down a couple cents (not near the drop of auto gas recently) which brought the C-172 down to $77 but the Arrow stayed @ $102. Dues stay at $122. Share value went down slightly to $10,846.

   Maintenance - by John

N20843 Cessna 172M

• ADS-B Evaluation Flight - On 1 Nov after the club meeting, Kip, TJ and I flew an ADS-B evaluation flight with John Housley's Pitts to see how the system performed. As the Pitts (which also has ADS-B out) approached the Cessna within roughly 1-2 miles, we got the first voice warning that said "Traffic". You would also get a pop up window on the GNS-430W Map page showing your aircraft symbol and the location of the traffic. As the Pitts continued to approach the Cessna, we got the second voice warning giving more detail saying "Traffic, 7:00 O'clock, 100 feet below, 1 mile". These were the only two voice messages we received as the Pitts flew in close formation with us for some time. When the Pitts flew away (more than a mile or so) and then rejoined us, we got the two audio warnings again. The Pitts turned off his ADS-B out system and after several seconds, we could see him again on our display via the ground radar uplink from the ground stations. The system is smart enough that it doesn't show duplicate targets for the same aircraft (one via direct ADS-B out and the other from the ground radar uplinked from the ground stations).

  

  John Housley's Pitts in close formation during ADS-B Evaluation

  

  John Housley's Pitts on the display passing behind us.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• No maintenance issues this month.

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