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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 31 October 2020

From The President - By Steve

Dear Members,

On October 25th, we had our club Meeting with 13 members (minimum required to conduct business) spread out in the hangar. Thanks to all who attended and especially to Mike Landgraf and Kip McCullen for setting up the hangar for the meeting, Bill Carrier and Mike Pic for the safety topic on icing, Larry Wehrman for the preheat presentation and Geoff Galloway for the insurance update. John Heilmann and TJ Smyka did a great job with the maintenance and financial presentations.

The Arrow upgrade appears to be moving along nicely. Getting it back in service should take some of the pressure off the RV and 172.

As the temperature falls preheating the airplanes becomes an issue. Geoff designed a new Engine Heater Control web page (shown below) that more easily controls the engine heaters than the WEMO ap. The Engine Heater Controls can be accessed by the Engine Heater Controls Link to the left or by bookmarking the following link on your computer or phone: http://heaters.geoffeg.org/

The control page image below shows the three aircraft engine heater controls with the Cessna Heater Status showing the heater ON and drawing 283 watts. If the heater status shows ON but little or no watts being used, the engine heater extension was probably not plugged in to the aircraft. The Arrow heater will not be active until the upgrade is completed and the aircraft returned to service.

Geoff has also ordered a cellular hotspot to provide a more reliable internet connection to control the heaters and should have it set up and working next week. It will run $25 per month for the hotspot service.

I hope everyone has a chance to get out and enjoy the Fall colors.

Safe flying!

Steve

Treasurer's Report - by T.J

Fellow Members,

Attached below are our the October financial schedules; don’t hesitate to call with questions.

Blue Skies

TJ

BILLING STATEMENT

BALANCE SHEET

Significant Discussions

• Avionics Fund - We continue to spend on the Arrow upgrade which is lowering the fund.
• Other Improvement Funds - We are no longer funding these lines as we experienced a significant increase in insurance and elected to not raise dues. At the officers meeting, we decided to hold dues flat and see what happens to insurance in January. Ultimately, we will likely combine the interior and exterior improvement funds.
• Maintenance Funds - No maintenance funds are negative. In fact, with the falling fuel prices and our not decreasing rental fees, the maintenance funds have begun to increase more rapidly.
• Overall Cash - Cash will be tighter at the end of the year than I thought a couple of months ago. The spending on the Arrow upgrade seems to be pacing with all the incoming cash. I still think we’ll be able to get through the end of the year without an assessment.
• Major Work - The line represents the funds we have spent on the Arrow upgrade and not yet put into service. When the Arrow is flying again, this line will go to $0 and the increased value of the new avionics will be included in the Arrow.
• Spare Parts/Old Avionics - Pic and John Heilmann have committed to completing and providing a detailed valuation of these line items. This process should be complete by the November 15 statement.
• Share Value - Share value essentially stayed the same this month.

RATE PER HOUR and DUES

• As a reminder to the membership, we reimburse ourselves for our club as follows:
  • Improvements - Monthly/Annual Fixed charges – non-aircraft expense = Dues and Assessments
  • Aircraft Operation and Maintenance = Rate per Hour
• We re-evaluate the amounts every March 15 and September 15. For this September, we are keeping dues that same until we can evaluate what happens with insurance.

   Maintenance - by John

N202CR RV-7A

• No maintenance activity this month

N20843 Cessna 172

• Starter - The starter was working intermittently when hot and finally failed to start the plane on 18 October when cold. A new Hartzell (Skytec) 149NL starter was ordered and installed on 21 October. The Cessna has had no starting issues since the starter was replaced. Since the same starter works on all three aircraft, we are going to get an estimate to repair the replaced starter so we can keep it as a spare.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Avionics Upgrade/Autopilot Install - Work continues on the upgrade. We ordered new plastic windshield and panel trim to repair the broken plastic parts. The new instrument panels have been cut and fitted and the final placement for the USB outlets, switches and indicator lights are being determined. Mounting brackets for all the remote mounted LRUs were fabricated and the wiring behind the panel is about 75% complete.

Copyright © 2018, St. Louis Flying Club, All rights reserved. Last updated October 2020 .