St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 21 September 2015

From The President - By Charley

Dear Members:

By now I'm sure you have all heard about the Arrow gear collapse that occurred on September 6th at Spirit. Jeff Evitts was flying when he received a continuous “gear in transit” light after departing Washington Regional and was unable to get a "green" for the right main gear upon arrival at Spirit. Jeff performed two low passes for the tower to inspect the gear and also spent time troubleshooting the problem south of the airport. After running through all checklists and his final low pass, he decided to land the aircraft with gear extended hoping that the problem was simply a sensor. Unfortunately, the gear was not locked and it collapsed shortly after touchdown. Jeff did a great job of attempting to troubleshoot the problem as well as landing the aircraft at the lowest possible speed while keeping it on the runway during the event. Because the left main and nose wheel were down and locked there was no damage to the prop or engine and surprisingly minimal damage to the right wing. Great job Jeff!

John believes that an O-ring in the main gear actuator failed which caused a lack of pressure to fully raise or lower the gear. There is no service interval specified for the actuator. The plan is to either overhaul or replace both actuators and then investigate an appropriate service interval for maintenance moving forward.

It looks like Jeff chose the best possible option given the circumstances. We will spend time at our upcoming meeting discussing the Arrow landing gear system and what options are available to a pilot when experiencing an issue. We will also review pictures of the damage and details of the event if anyone is interested.

Early this week, John obtained a quote from Air Associates to repair the Aircraft. On September 17th we received approval from the insurance company to proceed with the repair and Air Associates has been authorized to begin work. The repair quote is roughly $22K and was too extensive to attempt ourselves. Our main concern is getting the repair completed correctly and quickly. Air Associates has estimated a four week turnaround including the ordering of parts. The authorization was given to begin work on September 18th and we are hoping it will be complete by the second full week in October give or take.

We agreed last year that T.J. would collect pilot information requested by our insurance company regarding pilot time, qualifications etc. We will be doing that a bit earlier than we did last year in preparation for this year’s insurance quote. You will be receiving an online survey with questions recommended by our insurance company in the next week or two. It is important that everyone return this information as soon as possible so we can pursue renewal in timely manner. Because we have pilot in command time minimums on both the Arrow and Citabria, it has been recommended that we add that category to the member roster. If you have questions on how to log pilot in command time, below is a link to a good article found on the AOPA web site: http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Learn-to-Fly/Aviation-Subject-Report-Logging-Pilot-in-Command-PIC-Time

T.J. has picked Sunday, November 15th for our "Open Hangar" day. Information about the event will be out shortly, please feel free to invite family and friends to attend. T.J. is planning a chili cook off that will be lots of fun and a great opportunity for families to see the aircraft and hangar facilities!

Club officers will be meeting on October 5th to compile an agenda for our club meeting on October 17th. Please be sure to send me any items you would like added to the agenda before October 5th so that they can be considered for inclusion. We will have a completed agenda out to you all for review and questions approximately one week before the meeting.

Safe skies,

Charley

Treasurer's Report - by PIC

Members,

The price of avgas inched upwards to $5.96 which did not raise the hourly rates. The monthly dues are also unchanged. Share value went up to $10,639. The amount of increase was held back because of the costs we incurred recovering the Arrow after the landing incident. Al least some of these costs should be recovered once the insurance settlement is finalized.

Some other notes of interest this month;

• We purchased 3 overhead hangar lights for the Citabria hangar. This cost was added to the asset value of our facilities.
• John was able to purchase a set of aerobatic "Hooker" harnesses for the Citabria while he was at Oshkosh for a discount. This was subtracted from the Citabria Upgrade account. There is still about $2,500 in that account for parachutes and G meter.

Pic

   Maintenance - by John

N8746V Citabria 7ECA

• No Maintenance Issues this month

N20843 Cessna 172M

• LH Tire - On 3 Sept, Geoff reported that the LH main tire was flat. The tire and tube were replaced and the LH brake pads were replaced as well.
• Annual Inspection - The annual inspection is planned for 27 Oct through 1 Nov. There are no upgrades or installations planned so we should be able to complete the inspection in a relatively short period.

N2242N Piper Arrow IV

• Maintenance Status - The Arrow is currently on jacks in the Arrow Hanger. The insurance adjustor has approved Air Associates bid to repair the Arrow and they are ordering an overhauled RH gear on 21 Sep before it is bought by someone else. The remaining parts will be ordered when Air Associates receives a check from the insurance company which should be later this week. Air Associates will install the gear in our hangar and then tow it to their hangar to complete the repair. We expect it to be completed in mid October.

  

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