In this issue:
Mon. Jan. 9, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Mon. Feb. 13, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Monday, March 28, 6:30 - General Membership Meeting at Plymouth Library
Monday, April 10, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Monday, April 24, 6:30 - MDOT Safety Seminar at Plymouth Library
Saturday, April 29, 9:00 - Plane Wash / Barbecue at the Hangars
Monday, May 8, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Saturday, June 10, 9:00 - Plane Wash / BBQ & Membership Meeting
at the Hangars
Monday, July 10, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Saturday, July 22, 9:00 - Plane Wash / Barbecue at the Hangars
Monday, August 14, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Sunday, September 10, 9:00 - Plane Wash / Barbecue at the Hangars
Thursday, September 21, 6:30 - Membership Meeting at Plymouth Library
Monday, October 9, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Monday, November 13, 6:00 - Board Meeting at the Birdcage Pilot Lounge
Sunday, December 3, 5:30 - Holiday Party at a place to be announced
The Plymouth Library is at 223 S. Main St. in downtown Plymouth. Phone 734-453-0750
Plane Washes are scheduled to reserve the planes from 9 AM to 1 PM. This should allow members convenient use of the planes on plane-wash days.
The job of Operations Officer has been passed from Dion Zammit to Dale Thorsby. You can always find the current list of Officers and contact info on our home page.
New Flying Rates Effective Feb. 1
Because of increasing fuel costs and lower flying hours (see below), and based on the actual operating costs for the planes in 2005, the following rates will go into effect on Feb. 1:
Warrior: $65/hour (up from $62/hour)
Cessna: $65/hour (up from $62/hour)
Archer: $70/hour (up from $67/hour)
The extra money will be earmarked for the avionics reserve account.
Stuart Munro has been tentatively accepted as a member at the January Board meeting.
The membership is currently full and there is no waiting list.
At the Board Meeting on Jan. 9, Joe McEvoy showed us a graph of the total flying hours for MANG Aero Club for the last few years. For all aircraft, the totals were approximately:
2000 1100 hours
2001 1050 hours
2002 750 hours
2003 860 hours
2004 700 hours
2005 590 hours
The trend is disturbing. The planes fly best when they fly often. Maintenance costs are funded from hourly fees, but maintenance needs arise whether we fly or not. MANG Aero Club shows a loss of $3,820 for last year. We would like to recover this loss and at the same time make the Club more useful to you as members by increasing the flying time.
There can be many reasons for someone not flying. Life situations can take precedence. Money might be short. A stretch of bad weather can keep you grounded. But some reasons may be within our control as a Club. Did you feel that you could have flown more hours last year? What were the main factors that limited your flying? Did aircraft availability or scheduling difficulties keep you away? Is there anything structurally or procedurally that we can do as a Club to make it easier for you to use the planes as they were intended - as flying machines? If you have any thoughts on the matter, pass them along to any Club Officer. Or better yet, come to the next Board Meeting yourself and speak your mind in person.
The Archer annual is now underway. The King radio in the Archer has been fixed and it now in service. The Auto Pilot has been fixed, but has not been checked out because of bad weather. If you fly the Archer, check it out and see if it works for you. Now that we have the Garmin 430 in the plane, the Auto Pilot should be able to track a VOR radial or act as a wing-leveler as it used to do. It cannot track a DG heading like the Warrior.
The Warrior has had three out of four cylinders replaced in the recent past. The fourth cylinder shows slightly low compression.
In the Cessna, the loader nav/com is still in place, pending the repair of the radio that belongs there. The turn and bank indicator that was sent out for overhaul has been replaced by the vendor with one that is brand new.
Sending Documents to Alan Hickman
Safety/Training Officer, Alan Hickman, keeps the records on your medical certificate, flight reviews, and aircraft checkouts. There are three ways to get documents to him:
Scan an e-mail the documents to Alan.
FAX the documents to Alan.
Send the documents to Alan by U.S. Mail.
Garmin Training Available for Purchase
Dino Dinatale brought to our attention that a product called VFlight is available for those who want a formal tutorial program on the Garmin 430. The costs are from $180 to $260, depending on the package. None of us has any direct experience with the product, but for those of you who are interested in this sort of thing, you are welcome to check out these websites for yourself:
Also we are still keeping a CD of the free Garmin tutorial in the library cabinet in the MANG Office for anyone who wants to borrow it.
Here are the statistics for December 2005:
|
(Total HOURS) |
54115 |
43755 |
33149 |
All Aircraft |
|
December 2005: |
3.4 |
5.3 |
0.0 |
8.7 |