St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 October 2011

From The President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

I want to thank John, Dale and Charley for installing the new 406 MHz ELT in the Arrow last week. John reported that even though the limited access made the installation more difficult than anticipated, they were able to finish the job with minimal down time. The wiring for the optional GPS position broadcast capability was installed back to the ELT location in the tail cone and will be installed in the future when the special connector and installation tools are available in the next week or so. Even with out the GPS position broadcast, the new 406 MHz ELT ten times more accurate in position accuracy than the previous 121.5 ELTs (~2 mile radius vs 15-20 mile radius). When the optional GPS position reporting capability is operating, the position accuracy will be down to a 300 Foot radius.

Special thanks goes out to Mike W. for making arrangements for the club meeting. The meeting is scheduled for Saturday, 12 November from 1:30 to 3:30. The meeting will be held at the St. Louis County Library, Sachs Branch, located at 16400 Burkhardt, Chesterfield. I will be sending out an agenda for the meeting later this week. If you have any items to place on the meeting agenda, please send them to Mike or myself.

If you have recently renewed your medical, or completed a BFR, please send the information to John or Chris so they can update the "Member Status" section of the web site.

Check out PICs latest trip to Farmington, MO on the "Fly-in Destination" page.

I look forward to seeing everyone at the club meeting.

Happy Takeoffs!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Mike McBride

Fuel prices dropped slightly for the month, so flight rates went down to $71 and $95 per hour. Expenses for the month were as expected. The Treasury balance is strong at just under $2,430; adjusted treasury is negative due to some large member credit balances. Full share value is just under $11,100, and Limited share value is just under $7,200; Limited member upgrade price is $3,925.

The format of the billing statement has been modified this month, in an attempt to make monthly updates a bit easier to process. If you can't find information you are used to seeing on the billing statement, please let me know.

Finally, I'd like to ask all members for their focus in making payments prior to the 15th of the month. By club rules, members carrying a balance due are not eligible to fly club aircraft. While we do not like to strictly enforce this rule, it is important for all of us to keep our accounts current, if for nothing other than as a courtesy to all other club members. Thanks for your cooperation.

Fly safely!

Mike

   Maintenance - by John

N20843

• Oil Change - The oil and filter were changed on 11 October and a pint of Camguard added. The oil analysis results are back and all the readings are shown below. All readings are in the acceptable category.
  

N2242N

• ACK-04 406 MHz ELT Installation - The new ACK ELT was installed on Oct 27-30 October. Ground tests indicate that it doesn't interfere with with GPS reception like the previous GPS did. The ELT has a new cockpit control panel (shown below) located in the same location as the old ELT control panel and a buzzer. The ELT automatically activates when the ELT is subjected to a crash level deceleration force. The ELT may also be activated by pressing the "EMG ON" button on the top of the ELT control Panel. When the ELT is Transmitting, the "ELT ON" LED in the center of the cockpit control panel will flash, and the audio alert indicator will emit a series of 9 beeps approximately every 50 seconds to alert you that the ELT is operating. If there is no emergency, reset the ELT using the "Test/Rest" button on the bottom of the ELT control panel and immediately notify the appropriate search and rescue operations office or ATC of the false activation.
  

• AERA Alert/XM Radio Audio - The AERA audio output was connected to the intercom to enable audio alerts for controlled airspace and terrain. It also enables XM radio audio to be played through the intercom. A special thanks to Shiv for covering the first year subscription cost for XM radio. If you do not want to listen to the XM radio audio, just click on the XM Radio icon on the AERA GPS home page and click the speaker icon so an X appears over the speaker and the XM radio audio is turned off.

• Music Input Jack - While looking for a place to install a "Music Input Jack", I found that we already had one installed as shown in the photo below. It is located on the center console just under the gear down lights between the parking brake and the hand held mike. It is connected to the intercom and you can connect IPOD, MP3 player, etc audio to it.