May 2008 Minutes
Eximious Flying Club
General Membership Meeting/Safety Seminar
Meeting Minutes
Held at Eastown Distributors
In Highland Park
May 5, 2008
President, Howard Riley, called the meeting to order at approximately 6:30 PM at Eastown Distributors. Just prior to the start, the members enjoyed good pizza, salad, and pop. Thanks go to John Quasarano for making the arrangements.
First, a potential new member, Dunkin Kerry (hope the spelling is correct) was introduced, after which all members introduced themselves. Larry Haggart was not in attendance, but the minutes from the last meeting were accepted as submitted.
Treasurer John Walch reported that we will incur the cost of two annuals coming up. Also, that it’s likely that the hourly rates for the planes will be raised by two dollars to $85 in May, after review, due to rising fuel prices. Fuel at Detroit City (Coleman Young) is now $4.51/gallon.
Member at Large, Jim Lawlis was not present, being out of town.
Howard Riley, President, made an appeal for anyone interested in becoming Secretary for the club, as the current Secretary, Larry Haggart, is interested in taking the open Vice President position. Currently all functions are covered by sharing responsibilities.
Art Miller, Operations Officer, reported on the fuel prices in the area. The cheapest price is $4.15 at Ray’s airport, while the most expensive is $7.65 at Signature. A few others are $4.66 at Royal Air, $4.95 at Huron, $4.79 at Lapeer.
Usage of the aircraft in April was 19.2 hours for 8167F and 17.1 hours for 9090B.
The latest oil analysis report for 90B was in the normal range, where it had shown an elevated iron content in the previous oil analysis.
N8167F:
- The display on Com 1 was taken care of by Howard and now works fine.
- Art’s attempts to contact Unison about the Lasar problems in starting, have gone
unanswered with no response yet. He’ll keep trying.
- The primer sticks and needs cleaning, and also rotates when turning (reported during Safety
Seminar).
- The right brake pedal bleeds slowly while holding, going to the floor (reported prior to start of
meeting to Eric and Art).
N9090B:
- The avionics cooling fan was replaced.
- There is a slipping problem with the clutch in the power trim, and it needs a rebuild. During the repair, the plane will be out of service.
Art emphasized that ALL squawks should be reported. The squawks may be written on the white board, but must be reported to himself or the plane captains. Also, if the plane is found to be out of service by a pilot, it is just courteous to check the schedule and notify the next pilot booked.
The plane wash is coming up on May 17th, 9 am – 12 noon at Detroit City. During the wash, the left tire will be changed, and the right tire will be rotated.
Old Business
Still looking for a new venue for the monthly meetings. Comos Restaurant in Ferndale on 9 Mile and Woodward was visited by Allan James and suggested as a possibility. Another option Howard suggested is to hold them at a hangar.
The upgrade of avionics in 67F is still under review, but should be moved on quickly. The proposed package would consist of replacing the Loran with a Garmin 430, a transponder with pressure altitude encoder, and an audio panel with four way intercom and other enhanced features. Ron Black highly recommended the GPS, saying it has good visibility and is easy to use. It is IFR certified with monthly updates only taking about a minute to perform. It will get you down to minimums any place in the country. Also, a 3 pin jumper can be added to connect to any portable Garmin GPS so they can run in parallel, allowing the portable to continue with synchronized data in the event of a power failure.
The trade-in value of the removed equipment is about $4,500, resulting in a total package price of about $11,600. It was estimated that this would increase the value of the plane by at least half that amount, and a buyer would expect this type of equipment.
All of the directors said yes to the idea, and most members at the meeting seemed to be for it. How to provide financing still needs to be determined. A couple of possibilities are to take some out of the current funds, and/or to raise the monthly dues slightly. Art suggested that it would be good to time the installation before the annual due in June.
Saturday, May 31, and Sunday, June 1, the Red Bull Air Races will be held on the Detroit River, with practice runs on the preceding Thursday and Friday, qualifying on Saturday and the races on Sunday. Two websites offer more detailed information: www.redbullairraces.com and www.detroitairracers.com. Tickets are going quickly, as two out of four ticketing areas on the Detroit side have been sold out.
Howard mentioned that the same guy who was instrumental in bringing these races to Detroit was also working on putting together Sea Plane events in front of the Detroit Yacht Club. He will keep us informed on further developments.
New Business
The Safety Seminar was started about 7:20. Fifteen members had signed up for the meeting, but there were a few extras that showed up. Members signed in, and received a couple of handouts with the slides of the presentation by Howard Riley, and an article “Secret to Great Landing…a stabilized approach!” by Art Miller.
The seminar was very good, with some additional points not in the slides included below:
- Be aware of the useful loads for our planes:
N8167F – 935 lbs
N9090B – 918 lbs
Know where the alternate static source is located (under panel by left knee)
Draining the static lines, near floor on left side of pilots seat, should be included in preflight check.
If the vacuum fails, and using the standby vacuum, plan on landing immediately.
Art reviewed the provided article on the procedure for flying the pattern, and Ron Black explained his preferred pattern procedure. Art also discussed and recommended the Callback Publications published monthly at the Aviation Safety Reporting System web site http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/ .
Art discussed the cost saving benefits on fuel and cutting down on the lead deposits on plugs by leaning while taxing, idling, and at altitude. It was emphasized that care must be taken by going to full rich prior to climbing or running at or above 75% power. Avoid running EGT in excess of 1250. A good practice is to run at 1500 RPM for 15 seconds just prior to shut down. Plug life spans have averaged about 200 hr at $21/plug. Leaning out should lengthen their lifespan.
Our next meeting will be held at 6:30PM on June 2, 2008 at Detroit City unless another location is announced.
The meeting was adjourned about 8:15 PM.
Submitted by
Allan James for Larry Haggart
Secretary
