The Businessmen's Flying Club held its monthly meeting on Tuesday, April 6, 1999 at the Naper Aero clubhouse. President Mark Clements called the meeting to order at 7:30 PM. Flying members Jim Barna, Ken Best, Tom Braid, Nick Davis, Andrea Hoyt, John Jurek Matt Kenner, Ray Kvietkus, Mike Leavy, Tom Lechner, Jack Lindquist, Dan Michael, Mike Pastore, Don Patterson, Saeed Razfar, Bert Toppel, Jim Williams, Joe Weston, and Reza Zarafshar. New Wait List member and United Airlines pilot Lonnie Horn also attended.

Reza Zarafshar reported that although we had recorded his attendance at the last meeting that he was not there. (Oh, the joy of cut and paste.) Tom Braid amplified his comment about Avemco saying that they were hard to get hold of after their recent reorganization. The company no longer employs our agent.

Bert Toppel requested several modifications to the last newsletter. First, he objected to the wording "The BFC will be forced to look at new planes since the last Cessna 182 production prior to the 1997 was in 1986." Bert stated that there was "nothing wrong with upgrading to a ‘newer’ airplane." Bert’s second objection was to what he termed "editorialized transactions of the committee meeting" exploring our options regarding replacement of N44WW. In a compromise solution, Mark Clements suggested that the section of the newsletter reporting these talks be labeled: "The following is a discussion of several aspects of the meeting:" Bert next objected that the following sentence was incomplete and misleading. "The committee has concluded that we all have an obligation to continuously upgrade the safety and technology of our fleet for the benefit of future members." Bert recommended that we add the words "as we’ve done in the past."

With these modifications, a motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the newsletter with corrections as the minutes of the last meeting.

Treasurer Tom Braid provided a summary of the financial status of the Club. The summary indicates that the BFC cash balance is $68,219.14. We have pre-paid our Naper Aero accommodations for the coming year ($1,181.25 remaining) thus giving us a grand total of cash and credits of $69,400.14. Total expenses were $3,334.42. The cash gain for the month was $1,690.27. The reserve accounts have a surplus of $9.861. Old work night funds available for upgrades total $1,944 and new work night funds total $1,350.

The BFC received a notice that we had not paid the second installment of the insurance premium. Actually, we had never received the bill so Tom had to call to get a new bill. Now, the second installment of $1,559.90 has been paid and we also paid the IRS $184.00. The tax was due to our savings account interest, which is defined as "unrelated business income."

The details of the Treasurer’s Report can be found at the end of this newsletter.

A motion was made, seconded, and passed to accept the treasurer's report.

SMOH -- engine time since major overhaul

TBO -- engine time between overhauls

TMOH -- engine time to major overhaul

150: You will note new welded metal plates to define where the tires of the 150 and 172 should rest in the tiedowns. This site improvement is thanks to Nick Davis who has asked for additional worknight credit for his efforts.

Mike Pastore reported that the plane is leaning hard to the left and requires constant right rudder to keep it on track. Mark Clements reported that he had tweaked the rudder trim tab and that helped. The NAV radio was reported as unable to hold a signal on the DPA VOR at 3000 feet. This may be due to the several known unusable radials of DPA. Mike Leavy reported that the radio was inoperative half way to Pittsfield. Please document every variable possible if you experience a similar problem. Any minute clue might be the one that solves the mystery.

172: The trim panel on the pilot’s door has a missing screw. Tires on the mains are becoming very worn and cord is showing now on the pilot’s side tire. The #1 radio had a reported problem where the audio went off and the display went blank and the NAV head strayed on the localizer approach to Lewis. I flew the plane last week and the radio worked fine even on an ILS approach into Battle Creek. We have had problems off and on with #1 so we will return it to the factory for warranty repairs in the near future.

182: The carb heat control is stiff and difficult to move. Cylinder head temperature and exhaust gas temperature gage is inoperative. There is a dent on the spinner. I had a total vacuum failure while on an IFR flight in IMC from Dayton. Fortunately, I had been assigned the VOR 36 approach to ARR and had descended out of the rain and clouds so I didn’t declare an emergency. There was a 28-knot east wind so tracking the VOR wasn’t easy and not being able to rely on the DG was disorienting. I taxied directly to Lumanair so this critical system failure was immediately repaired.

A motion was made and seconded to buy one airplane to replace the 182. The motion passed with Ken Best casting the only dissenting vote.

All members were invited to test fly a new 172 and 182 on Saturday, April 24^th. We would have the opportunity to buy the demonstrator plane that we tested for $217,900. This would be a saving of $16,000 over the cost of a brand new plane. It will be available on May 15^th with less than 100 hours on the tach. Financing would be available at a fixed rate of 7.5% with terms of up to twenty years. The committee will recommend this purchase at the meeting. Proposals to accept this recommendation will voted upon by the members present on May 4th. Matt Kenner prepared spreadsheets detailing the costs of buying this specific airplane and had them available on Saturday at the clubhouse. That spreadsheet is reproduced in this newsletter for your reference.

We asked Joe Factor of Preister Aviation the cost of maintaining the IFR certified GPS database. He said that the cost should be $600 per year. We could receive the information in firmware on a data card as we have now or over the Internet and upload from a laptop via an RS232 port.

Mike Goin has put up a BFC web page on the net at the following address: www. enteract.com/~mgfree/bfc/bfc.html. Mike would like to solicit BFC member’s suggestions for content. Would the membership want the roster posted? How about the latest issue of Prop Wash? Currently Mike has the handbook and bylaws, our brochure, e-mail addresses, and a photo of the airport posted.

Anthony Marchechi has decided to give up a lucrative career in banking and take a job as the First Officer with TWA Express. He’ll be making starvation wages but following his lifelong dream of becoming an airline pilot. Anthony is a former BFC member and is currently on the waiting list.

The following members have provided their e-mail addresses:

Chris Sims CSJETSET@compuserve.com

Don Patterson DPATTER470@aol.com

Ken Leibach KENL1@prodigy.net

Joe Weston weston@cig.mot.com

Jim Williams JDWKalmus@aol.com

Mike Pastore Mpastore1@aol.com

Matt Kenner mtkenner@esi-il.com

Mark Clements MarkClements@prodigy.net

Nick Davis nooker@alum.mit.edu

Mike Goin mgfree@enteract.com

Hubert Elsen khelsen@aol.com

Matt Forsberg Mforsberg@att.com

Bert Toppel BJToppel@anl.gov

Dan Michael djm@mcs.net

If you would like to have your e-mail address included in forthcoming listings please let me know. After we have collected all the information, we will add your e-mail addresses to the roster.

The BFC refreshment list was created as another way of recognizing special achievements. Criteria for membership vary with the length of the list. The person scheduled for refreshments should bring beverages and desert to the club meeting. If unable to attend, he or she should arrange to trade meeting dates with someone else on the list.
 

Matt Kenner	May, 1999
Ray Kvietkus	June, 1999
Andrea Hoyt	August, 1999

Lonnie Horn submitted a completed application at the meeting and joins the waiting list. Lonnie flies the Airbus for United.

Jack Meilahn has asked to be removed from the waiting list.

Membership waiting list:

Chuck Walton

Craig McCormack

Andree DeSas

Anthony Marchechi

Lonnie Horn

Potential members are reminded that they must be present at the meeting when an opening is announced and be prepared to purchase the class of membership they prefer. Memberships may be upgraded at any time without penalty at prevailing rates.

The fire safety instruction hosted by John Maggio originally scheduled for at the May 4^th Worknight will have to be postponed. John is the Fire Brigade Commander for the Woodbridge-Darien Fire Protection District. Unfortunately, John is fighting an acute personnel shortage at work and will be unable to join us on May 4^th.

The Businessmen's Flying Club will hold its next business meeting, worknight and cookout on Tuesday evening, May 4, 1999 at the Naper Aero clubhouse. Plan to arrive as early as you can after 4:30 PM. The business meeting will start at 7:30 PM and will be followed by refreshments.

Work Night Credits:

Jim Barna 1

Mark Clements 1

Nick Davis 2

Andrea Hoyt 1

Matt Kenner 1

Ray Kvietkus 1

Tom Lechner 1

Dan Michael 1

Mike Pastore 1

Don Patterson 1

Bert Toppel 1

Joe Weston 1

Jim Williams 1

Reza Zarafshar 1
 
 

INCOME

Billed charges, February, March Invoice:

Previous (-$311.87) $274.50

Dues, work night 2,025.00

February flying 1,874.10

Late fees 22.95

Total billed charges $4,196.55

Credits:

Expenses (-$71.18)

Balance Changes (-$230.22)

Net Invoice (-81.65) $4,145.19

Receipts

Charges $4,297.91

Capital 250.00

Interest (NOW) 8.50

Interest (MBNA) 228.35

Total receipts $4,784.76

PAYMENTS

Credits to members:

Fuel Away 0.00

Office 38.18

Postage 33.00

Operation 0.00

Social 0.00

Total credits $71.18

Payments to outsiders:

Ameritech $15.82

Lumanair

C172 Hinge 37.12

Naper Aero

Accommodations 312.00

Fuel 748.11

Operations

Compressor 237.54

AVEMCO 1,559.90

IRS 184.00

Total payment to outsiders $3,094.49

Credit, Naper (-168.75)

Total expenses $3,334.42

Cash Gain $1,690.27

BALANCES

NOW account $10,283.40

MBNA money market 57,935.74

Cash Total $68,219.14

Credit, Naper Aero 1,181.25

Grand Total $69,400.39

Receivable 110.50

Liabilities -594.87

RESERVES

Insurance $1,190

Work night (Old) 1,944

(New) 1,350

Engines

C150 $12,397

C172 15,741

C182 24,992

Annuals 1,925

Total reserves $59,539

RESERVE SUPLUS $9,8861

Retained Capital (inactive) $4,150