St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 19 September 2005

From The Vice President - By Todd Michal

Dear Members,

On September 2nd, Mike Piccirilli sold his share to Mike McBride. Pic had been president of the club since 1990 and we will certainly miss his experience and leadership. Mike McBride has already been up in the plane a few times and we welcome him to the club.

We had a Club Meeting on 7 September but unfortunately only 4 members could make it. We nominated club officers as follows and would like to have the members vote on these officers by email.

More detail on the club meeting is provided below. We plan to have another club meeting in the next few weeks that hopefully all the members can attend.

Randy Skyles is interested in selling his share and has been in contact with Mark Rehwinkel (his application information was previously sent by email).

The club received another application this week and it will be sent by email as part of the Newsletter notification message.

Happy Landings!

Todd

Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe

The large payments for all the flight time last month gave the Adjusted Treasury a good boost, back up from $309 to $1193. It was also helped by the very low fuel expense this past month. Remember 2 months ago, the Adjusted Treasury was at $559, and then dropped last month with big fuel expenses. When big fuel expenses show up the month before the flying is paid for, it causes fluctuations in the balance. The 2 month increase from $559 to $1268 is a better indication of how things have actually been doing.

Our last fuel purchase at JetCorp was at $4.17 per gallon, up from $3.85 per gallon. This means the hourly rate on the next bill will be $57 per hour. We'll see what the fuel price has done since then and what it does this coming month, and will continue to adjust the hourly rate as necessary.

Club Meeting on 7 September - by John Heilmann

The annual club meeting was held on 7 September at the Jetcorp conference Room. Club members Todd Michal, Marlin Sipe, Randy Skyles and John Heilmann were in attendance.

Todd Michal called the meeting to order.
The minutes from the last annual meeting on September 8th were read for review.
Treasury report - Marlin reported that there was $1192.60 in the Maintenance/Annual fund and $2,243 in the Engine repair/overhaul Fund.
Engine Status - The engine currently has about 1400 hours SMOH. Discussion followed on the low compression (60/80) on the #1 and #3 cylinders and what would be the various options for repair. The two options below were proposed:
- Overhaul the #1 & #3 cylinders - estimated cost $2400-2500
- Replace the engine with a 150 hp or 180 hp engine - $16-20,000
Since there are still about 600 hours left until Major overhaul, the members at the meeting suggested that we overhaul the 2 cylinders (if the next compression test shows the cylinders are less than 60) and use the engine repair/overhaul fund to pay for it.
Aircraft - John gave a presentation on the clubs history that showed the average age of the club aircraft since 1958 has been 14.5 years. In 1980, the club members paid an additional $1,300 and purchased a 5 year old aircraft (our current aircraft). To purchase a 5 year old aircraft now as the club did in 1980 would run about $115,000 (2000 C-172R) and would cost each member an additional $9,300. Since this is a significant amount, and the aircraft performance difference is not that much, it makes more sense to keep our aircraft and maintain/upgrade it as desired
Avionics - The COMM units in the aircraft are relatively new but the remaining avionics (ADF, Transponder, GS, NAV Unitss, and Marker Beacon) are now 30 years old. The ADF is no longer reliable and the NAV units are no longer serviced at Narco. The Garmin 430 is the best selling GPS and is the GPS of choice in almost all new aircraft and upgrades. Most of the other GPS units such as the Garmin 300XL and 1155XL, King 90B, and Apollo GX50 and GX60 will be phased out in a few years. With so many Garmin 430's in the field, upgrades and serviceability in the future should be readily available. Rather than spend money to install an older, lower cost GPS that will be phased out and no longer supported, It is recommended to install a Garmin 430 which will provide a GPS, and integrated NAV, and COMM. If we do install a Garmin 430, some of the members suggested that we look at installing an audio panel. It was also suggested to look at the price to install a whole new stack that includes a NAV COMM and Transponder as our transponder and NAV units are over 30 years old. Information for further discussion will be provided at the next meeting.
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 no vote was taken.

Club Officers - The following slate of officers was nominated:

President: Todd Michal
Vice President: Mike Russell
Secretary: Mike Warakomski
Treasurer: Marlin Sipe
Maintenance: John Heilmann

Maintenance - by John Heilmann & Randy Skyles

Oil Analysis - We received the oil analysis results from the August 8th oil change as sample 18 below. There was an decrease in all readings since sample 17 which was the break in oil used for for the overhauled cylinder. All the values are well within normal ranges. The affect of using Avblend is shown starting with sample 11 below.

Oil Contaminants

Sample Date Hours Alum Iron Copper Nickel Chrome Silicon

1 9-Aug-96 50 18 47 4 4 156 6

2 30-Oct-97 54 16 52 4 4 204 3

3 19-Jun-98 47 18 51 1 4 160 10

4 23-Oct-98 45 12 39 4 5 219 5

5 15-Apr-99 31 11 39 3 5 145 8

6 15-Aug-99 60 12 45 3 8 287 8

7 15-Apr-00 52 13 45 4 8 207 8

8 19-Aug-00 50 13 45 5 6 207 6

9 10-Feb-01 54 14 46 5 5 116 7

10 7-July-01 56 13 57 3 6 124 13

11 26-Oct-01 45 10 44 3 4 83 14

12 28-Apr-02 57 14 56 3 8 165 4

13 15-Mar-03 55 12 56 3 7 108 6

14 23-Jul-03 50 12 56 3 6 112 3

15 31-Dec-03 58 16 28 3 3 57 10
16 25-Jul-04 49 12 31.6 3.2 2 54 5

17 20-Feb-05 41 12 26.9 6.2 9 36 8

18 6-Aug-05 54 10 22 4.4 4 32 7

FAA SEEKS PUBLIC COMMENT ON ST. LOUIS CLASS B CHANGES

The FAA is in the process of modifying the St. Louis Class B. airspace due to the new runway at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The final rule is expected by April 2006. AOPA participated in the airspace ad hoc working group meetings in 2003 and 2004 and the group's suggestions were incorporated in the design. The FAA has scheduled public meetings for 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on October 19 at Chester City Hall in Chesterfield, Missouri. For more information, contact Greg Barrett, 314/890-1040.

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