"St Louis Flying Club Newsletter"

St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 October 2004

From The President - By Mike Piccirilli

Dear Members,

The plane is back from C&D and John reports that it runs great! I have authorized Marlin to deduct the cylinder repair expense from our engine fund. My reasoning being that these repairs could very well increase the service life of the engine. John and Marlin have more of the details in their sections.

If you remember back a couple issues ago, a Greyhound Rescue club was requesting our OK for them to sell images of our website picture on items for fund raising. I got a note that the club gave up on the idea, but the marketing organization had gone ahead and made a key chain with our web picture on it as a sample and he sent it to me. He is willing to make additional copies for $1.00 a piece, shipping included. I will put it in the aircraft glove box (so you can take a look) unless someone can think of something we could use it for. If you would like to purchase one for yourself, here is his e-mail: rmichalsky@wi.rr.com

Happy Landings!

Pic

Annual Meeting - John Heilmann

The annual club meeting was held on 8 September at the Jetcorp conference Room. All club members were in attendance.

Mike Piccirilli called the meeting to order.
The minutes from the last annual meeting on July 1 2003 were read for review.
Treasury report - Marlin reported that there was $212 in the Maintenance/Annual fund and $2,550 in the Engine repair/overhaul Fund. The engine currently has about 1300 hours SMOH. Discussion followed on the low compression on the #2 cylinder and what would be the various options for repair. The three options below were proposed:
- Just overhaul the #2 cylinder - estimated cost $800-$1,200
- Do a top overhaul (all cylinders) - estimated cost $3,200 - $5,000
- Replace the engine with a 150 hp or 180 hp engine - $16-20,000
The decision was made to check the compression again and just repair the #2 cylinder if compression was still around 60 or less.
Aircraft Improvement Priorities - A vote was held on the priority of improvements to the aircraft. The club voted fixing the engine as top priority followed by paint and then an IFR GPS.
IFR GPS - With the new Garmin 430 and 530 GPS units on the market, a number of used IFR GPS units are on the market and selling at reasonable prices. The yearly database updates are also going down in price and are now approximately $300 per year. Information on the Garmin 300XL and 1155XL, King 90B and 94, and Apollo GX50 and GX60 was provided. With good IFR GPS deals available on Ebay from time to time, a vote was taken to pre-approve $350 per member to use if a good deal came up. The motion failed to pass with a vote of 7 for and 2 against.
Creve Coeur Airport - A discussion was held on moving the plane from Spirit to Creve Coeur airport due to the lower fuel and hanger costs but the club decided to stay at Spirit Airport.
Club Officers - The club voted 7 to 0 to keep the same officers as last year.

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

The total cost of the cylinder replacement was $1324.34. To pay for it, $1324 was transferred out of the Engine Fund, leaving $1304 in the Engine Fund.

With the light flying last month (light payments this month), the Adjusted Treasury took a step back this month frrom $361 to $326. This still leaves us behind what we would like to have saved toward the Annual at this time ($450).

The cost of Fuel at Spirit has recently jumped to $3.45/gallon. On the bill next month, the hourly rate will go up $1 to $51/hour.

Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

Cylinder Repair - The number 2 cylinder was removed by C&D at 3902.5 hours TT (1308.8 SMOH) and inspected at St Louis Cylinder. The cylinder had a crack, was out of round, and had a worn exhaust guide and seat. We replaced the cylinder with an overhauled cylinder with new rings and a new exhaust valve. C&D reinstalled the cylinder and changed the oil.

Dimmer Switch - While the aircraft was down for repair, C&D repaired the Panel light dimmer switch.

Compression Test Trend - A review of the compression test results since November 1989 is shown below. The sharp drop in the readings near the Nov 96 time frame is probably due to a compression tester that was out of calibration. The graph clearly shows the increasing loss in compression that caused the replacement of the #2 cylinder. We will keep close track of the compression results at the next annual to see how the #1 and #3 cylinders are doing.

BFR/Medicals Due - by Todd Michal

Here is a list of the BFR and Medicals that expire this month:

John Heilmann - BFR is due in October.

FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions

See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot and Instrument Rating Written Test by taking a quick 10 question test. Submit your answers and you will receive the correct answers and your score. (Don't worry, only you see the test results and your score.) This is a quick and easy way to keep familiar with the FARs. Use the links below and try to get a 100%:

The links above take you to Kip's FAA written Test Preparation Site. This site can be found directly at: http://www.exams4pilots.org/

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