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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 27 November 2016

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with friends and family!

Please join me in welcoming John Housley as the newest member of the St. Louis Flying Club and know I speak for the group when I say we are all happy to have you John! John has most recently been a club instructor and check pilot for the Citabria. Many members have already enjoyed working with him to develop new flying skills. During his first month of membership, John has already found a training syllabus in a book written by Rich Stowell covering emergency maneuver training. John pointed out that the Citabria is a great learning platform for emergency maneuvers. Emergency maneuvers would be best learned in the Citabria but could also be useful when flying the 172 or the Arrow. John has offered to pull together a ground school tailored to members interests and then will offer flight training on an individual basis. Please drop John a note if you are interested in this type of training and he will then organize a session based on responses. Thanks John!

If you are interested in reading more about emergency maneuver training, a link to purchase the book can be found here: Emergency Maneuver Training.

A huge thanks to John, Larry, Dom, Tim & Steve for completing the Citabria annual inspection over the last week! If you recall, we voted to add ADS-B out to the Citabria during the annual this year to take advantage of the FAA $500 rebate. Thanks John for suggesting that schedule and submitting the rebate request!

You will see in T.J.’s note that the Arrow engine overhaul is running a bit over budget. We have money in the treasury to pay for the additional items and will wait until the project is complete to determine any further financial contributions required by members. The items driving the overage are primarily the prop governor overhaul, engine mount repair, and new baffles as well as some other items that make sense to address while we are performing the overhaul. During an engine overhaul we typically take the opportunity to replace any old or worn items forward of the firewall while the engine is out. This is the best time to make these replacements and they cannot always be budgeted for accurately up front. Thanks to John and Larry for their work to date on the Arrow, the cleanup of the engine compartment and associated hardware looks great!

You have probably also seen Steve Heidenreich’s request for insurance renewal information which includes your flight hours. If you have not done so already, please send this information back to Steve in the next couple of days so he can submit the information to our insurance company for a 2017 quote. We do expect the insurance to increase slightly this year due to our incident with the gear, Steve will be back in touch with information when a quote is available.

Thanks again to all who have worked on Citabria and the Arrow over the last month, it truly is a team effort to keep the airplanes in top shape!

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

Members,

It was a big month for the treasury given we paid for our new engine, propeller and engine mount! In addition, John Housley is now officially a member of the club, so we welcome him.

Aircraft Rates - Fuel stayed flat at $6.08 per gallon, so it did not impact the rate per hour. However, the Cessna has been flown more efficiently for some time now and it has been long enough that it is reasonable for us to reduce the standard fuel flow from 8.1 GPH to 8.0 GPH, thus, reducing the cost from $79 to $78 for the month. Rates for November are $64, $78 and $104 for the Citabria, Cessna and Piper.

Arrow New Engine - Due to higher than expected expenses for the refurbishment of the engine mount and prop governor as well as miscellaneous expenses, the officers estimate that the total cost to replace the engine will be approximately $6,000 higher than the $42,415 presented at the meeting. We have plenty of cash to complete the project and we will wait until everything is completed and take a look at the overall treasury to make a recommendation on how to handle the shortfall.

Share Value - The dust has settled with the Arrow engine replacement, Cessna annual and the new member. The resulting November share value is $10,447.

Dues - Although we welcomed a new member this month we are holding the dues at $119 per member. This is based on an increased estimate for insurance due to annual inflation and a higher insured value of the Arrow.

Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions.

T.J.

   Maintenance - by John

N8746V Citabria 7ECA

• AnnualInspection - The Citabria Annual Inspection was completed on 25 November. The compression test results were #1-71/80, #2-77/80, #3-79/80, #4-79/80. In addition to the Annual Inspection, the following items were also completed:
  • GTX-335 Transponder - The King KT-76C transponder was removed and the GTX-335 ADS-B out transponder was installed and the online application for the $500 rebate was submitted.
  • LH Main Gear - The LH main gear wheel bearings were regreased and the LH brake pads were replaced
  • Wing Rigging - The wing rigging was adjusted per the Citabria Service Manual and American Champion Technical Support.

N20843 Cessna 172M

Elt - The ACK E-04 ELT was repaired by ACK and installed back in the Cessna on 21 Nov with a new ACK E-04.0 ELT battery. The new battery expiration date is Nov 1, 2021.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

Engine - We received word from Air Power that our engine is now estimated to be completed on December 5th. We will be notified when it is finished and being packed for shipment.

Firewall Forward Electrical - The electrical wiring and most electrical components forward of the firewall have been installed. The final connections will be made once the engine is installed.



Engine Mount Installation - The engine mount was repaired and sent back to us several weeks ago. We needed to complete the wiring and other firewall systems installation before we installed the engine mount as it blocks access to the firewall. Since the firewall installations are now compete, we just fitted the engine mount to the firewall today. We plan to install and torque the engine mount to firewall bolts tomorrow.



Engine Baffles - We debated whether to get new baffles or try to repair the old baffles. The old baffles were already repaired multiple times and the cylinder cooling fins had worn through the baffles in multiple locations making then very difficult to repair. We ended up ordering new baffles and were able to get them powder coated for free. Here are a few pictures of the old worn baffles and new powered coated baffles.

Copyright © 2016, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated November 2016 .