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St. Louis Flying Club Newsletter - 20 September 2003 |
From The President - By Mike Piccirilli
Dear Members,
I have nothing new to report this month. Please take a look at the maintenance section and interior options and hopefully we can all get together on Sept 30 and make the final decision.
Happy Landings!
Pic
Treasurer's Report - by Marlin Sipe
The fuel cost at JetCorp has gone up another 5 cents to $3.00/gallon. As a result, starting this coming month the hourly rate is going up $1 to $48/hour.
There's a 0.6 hour discrepency somewhere in the flight times. I'll track down that error when I can this coming month, and either fix this month's bill, or make the adjustment next month.
The Treasury had a nice increase this month, and we're ahead of the game, at least for now.
Maintenance - by John Heilmann
Radio Mic - Mike Russell squawked the hand microphone. He said the tower was able to hear him using the number 1 radio from the pattern but that the tower had trouble hearing him when he called in from Lake St. Louis. Marlin and I also had range problems and static issues with the number 1 radio using headphones on our trips to Pennsylvania so it is probably not a hand mic issue. I think when the aircraft is down for the interior upgrade, we should send in the number 1 radio for servicing.
Interior Upgrade - The following table summarizes the interior upgrade costs from three different companies; Airtex, Hangar Bay, and Executive Wings.
| Item | Airtex | Hanger Bay | Executive Wings | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seats (vinyl and fabric) | $1,144 | $899 | $1,400 | Airtex and Exectutive Wings will have pockets in back of the front seats; Hanger Bay has no pockets |
| Side Panels (Vinyl & fabric w/carpet on the bottom) | $742 | $549 | $565 | |
| Carpet | $291 | $229 | $315 | Airtex & Executive Wings has "wear pads" integrated w/carpet; Hanger Bay does not |
| Seat Belts | $168 | $168 | $168 | Our seat belt fittings with new webbing installed |
| Total | $2,345 | $1,815 | $2,448 |
The following 3 companies all provide interior kits for the C-172. Airtex is probably the most well know of the three companies. Executive Wings website provides great photos of their interior upgrades. Executive wings also does interior installation work so they are very familiar with how to install their products. Executive wings has been very responsive of all my questions, often answering my emails within minutes, even on the weekends. This could be helpfull if we run into any problems or have questions during the installations phase. While it would be nice to have leather seats, they would add about $1,200 dollars to the above costs. If we don't go with leather, cloth seats are the most comfortable. I recommend we go with cloth on the sitting area and vinyl on the seat sides and back as shown in the picture above.
- EXECUTIVE WINGS - I recomend Executive Wings, primarily based on the photos of their C-172 interior work on their website and their responsiveness. I recommend the following colors:
- Seat & Side Panel Vinyl = Light Neutral
- Seat & Side Panel Fabric = Toy Store - Chess
- Carpet = Acorn
- Seat belt webbing = Light Brown (From Southern Safety Inc.)
- AIRTEX - If we go with Airtex, the following colors are recomended:
- Seat & Side Panel Vinyl = DT-77 Barley
- Seat & Side Panel Fabric = DW-12 Oak
- Carpet = Beige
- Seat Belt webbing = Light Brown (From Southern Safety Inc.)
- HANGAR BAY - While Hangar Bay was the lowest cost, their seats did not have back pockets and their carpet did not have wear pads installed near the rudder pedals. I recommend Executive Wings or Airtex over Hangar Bay.
BFR/Medicals Due - by Todd Michal
According to the club records,the following Medical and BFR's will expire over the next 6 months.
- Mike Piccirilli BFR due in December
- Mike Russell Medical due in December
- Mike Russell BFR due December 2002
- Mike Warakomski BFR & Medical is due now
Please provide me with any updates on your medical or BFR status.
FAA Private and Instrument Test Questions
See how much you remember from your FAA Private Pilot and Instrument Rating Written Test by taking a quick 10 question test. Submit your answers and you will receive the correct answers and your score. (Don't worry, only you see the test results and your score.) This is a quick and easy way to keep familiar with the FARs. Use the links below and try to get a 100%:
The links above take you to Kip's FAA written Test Preparation Site. This site can be found directly at: http://www.exams4pilots.org/
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