| St Louis Flying Club |
Hi Members,
Let me officially welcome our newest member, Jeff Schubert. He purchased John Ganahl's share on October 14th. Jeff is an ordained Lutheran Minister who is currently assigned as the Director of Family Ministry. Jeff travels the country with this position. John Ganahl actually flew with Jeff and spoke very highly of Jeff's competence as a pilot. I discussed our various procedures with Jeff also. Jeff has been added to the insurance and has been given the password to our website. He is good to go!! Jeff is anxious to meet and perhaps even go flying with other members.
Thanks for everyone attending our meeting last month. The minutes of the meeting are contained elsewhere in the newsletter.
Happy Landings, Pic
Minutes of Club Meeting held on September 22, 2000
All the members were present except for Randy Skyles who was out of town on business. The meeting was called by Mike Piccirilli to discuss the direction the members would like to take in regard to aircraft maintenance and improvements and whether to add additional club members to pay for it.
Marlin Sipe gave the treasury report. The treasury is on track to meet expected expenses but does not include any surplus to fund aircraft improvements. (See latest treasury report below).
A discussion followed on the problems we have experienced with the radios and transponder. These items tend to fail on longer trips which could be an indication that heat build up is causing them to fail. The members decided to get a cooling fan installed as a first priority. Randy is getting an estimate from Mueller to see what it would cost to have one installed. If the price is reasonable, we will have it installed; if not, we will look into installing it ourselves.
Paint touch up was established as the second priority. We received an estimate of $1600 to repaint the cowl, wheel pants, leading edges of the wing and struts. The members felt this was excessive and wanted to try and get a lower estimate or look into other options. The cost is high due to the three color design and the associated labor involved in stripping, priming, masking and painting (approx. 40 hours labor).
GPS (IFR) - The members discussed getting a GPS installed. Marlin expressed a desire to get an IFR GPS. The cost for an IFR GPS installation is estimated at $6-7, 000 with annual charges of approx. $600 for database updates. The majority of the members do not fly IFR and did not want to invest another $1,000 apiece for an IFR GPS installation.
Interior Upgrades - The interior of the aircraft is starting to show some signs of wear. Most members felt the interior is ok and did not need upgrading at this time. The cost to have the complete interior redone is approx. $6,500 (Seats, carpets, sidepanels, etc). Airtex has interior kits we could order and install ourselves that would run less that $2,000 ($800 for the seats, $516 for the side panel sets, $253 for the carpet, and approx $300 for misc. items). The members felt the interior upgrade was a lower priority and could wait.
Additional Members - Increasing membership from 7 to 8 was discussed as a way to bring in additional funds to pay for the GPS or interior upgrade. Most members felt the additional share would reduce their current share value as the aircraft value would not increase as much as the cost of the upgrade. An additional member would also make the aircraft less available. The majority of the members wanted to keep the membership at 7 to maximize aircraft availability.
New Aircraft - The members discussed buying a different aircraft with an IFR GPS and upgraded interior. The outcome was that it would probably cost more than our current aircraft and we would need to come up with an additional investment. The membership decided to keep our current aircraft.
In order to start building a fund to pay for the avionics cooling fan, paint job, and other upgrades, the members decided to increase the monthly dues by $10 per month.
The step stool was still sitting at C-D aircraft from when the annual was done earlier this year. I have it now and will put it back in the aircraft. A special thanks to Randy for solving the disappearing stool mystery.
From The Treasurer - From Marlin Sipe
The Treasury had a nice increase, and we are now about $120 ahead of what we want to have for the Annual so far. The plane flew about 20 hours last month, so hopefully that will help on the next bill too.
As agreed at the meeting, monthly dues now include an additional $10 to help increase the Treasury for improvements (cooling fan, paint touch-up). The extra $70 per month is a start, but will not cover the full expense in a reasonable time. For info for the people joining or leaving the club, dues on the bill are for the coming month, with the month ending on the 15th.
We received the bill for the Personal Property Tax. It is $934.06 this year, which is pretty close to the guess of $931.40 that was based on the Assessment we received in May or June. That's a $10.8% increase over 1999. I'm not adjusting the escrow for the $3 difference. For January, I will assume a similar ($10%) increase as a guess at the tax for next year.
Maintenance Corner - From Randy Skyles
John Gannahl and I had flown the plane earlier and had written up the heater control for not closing all the way. I lubed the cables and the cabin heat door now closes all the way. The cable was a little dry and caused the door to stick slightly open.
PIC, said he was having a hard time opening the cargo door lock. I lubed the lock and works fine with my key. Check your keys and IÕll have copies made of my key if needed.
I checked and serviced all the tires and lubed all the control linkages.
Latest information on the converter plate gasket AD (AD2000-18-53). The company that made the gasket changed the material and the new gaskets are failing. The AD doesnÕt apply to us as our gasket is made of the old material.
On my flight to Chicago, the number one radio failed again. Based on the membership decision to place the avionics cooling fan as the number one priority, I will call Mueller and get an estimate for him to install an avionics cooling fan. If the price is reasonable, it may be best to have him install the fan. If his price seems too high, we will investigate installing it ourselves.
I sure hate to see John Gannahl leave the club as he has been in the club for a long time and sure will be missed. Good luck John. Randy
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February 2000