September 9, 2013
Valley Fliers September Board Meeting
Meeting commenced at: 7:01
Present: Botezatu, Lawton, DeWitt, Patrick, Vader, plus 6 members.
Excused: Bryce
Approval of August Meeting Minutes
Botezatu moves for approval as written, DeWitt seconded, carried unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report
See Alan’s handout. 88L had the most hours this month (34H had its annual). We are down overall year to date, but that is likely due to the sale and purchase of the 182s and early summer maintenance. The fuel purchase program is saving money, Alan guesses $1500 since March. Question from the floor: Since fuel prices are up, will the hourly rates go up? Alan is hoping they will go down again soon and if they do rates shouldn’t need to change. Follow up question: has the fuel purchase agreement staved off a rate increase? Yes, but gas is still high enough if it stays where it is rates will need to rise. Question: will it save the club money if we purchase cheap fuel elsewhere? Yes. It is a little more work for Alan. If you can save 35 cents or so per gallon it is probably worth doing. The 043 maintenance charge is the last charge (from Mike Boatz) for the cylinder. If we can find that cylinder, we could potentially sell it. Tom will create an inventory of what the club owns. Comment from the floor: It may not make sense to inventory parts that we cannot keep in the office. Tom’s inventory may help us to keep Mike’s randomness in check. The 9MA costs were from the initial work to get it ready for use. The 88L costs were due to the cylinder issue. We are rebuilding from the 9MA purchase, but we are in good shape overall. It looks like we’ve recovered $15-20K from the purchase already. Question from the floor: as we approach the end of the year, will we consider whether we are accumulating too much cash? Answers: Alan says we may consider it. Florin notes we should consider purchase of an enclosed hangar with some of that cash. An enclosed hangar might help speed the annuals that we do. Hangars apparently cost about $80k. Gerry (from the floor) suggests the hangars are not a good investment. In addition to the capital outlay, the city charges a land-use fee. The larger hangars that could hold two airplanes would cost about $120k. The condo fees run about $100/ month. Alan suggests we could run an analysis, but it won’t pencil out. Alan notes the excess funds that we’ve been accumulating are being accumulated to support fleet replacement. Next would be 34H in about three years. Comment from the floor: The reserves are useful, but shouldn’t burn a hole in the board’s pockets. Another commenter from the floor: we should understand whether the source of the accumulation is from the fixed or variable charges. Some discussion of whether or not the rates will be re-evaluated at year end. Alan says he would be happy to do an analysis for board discussion and potential recommendation to the members. Prior survey of the members (2011) indicated that members priorities at that time was reducing rates and replacement of the 182. One option previously discussed is charging based on tach time rather than Hobbs time. A benefit of that would be to incent folks to decrease power. Question: What is the membership status? We have two for sale. Eric has one lead, but the potential purchaser is out of state for the rest of the month.
Alan also noted that our registration certificate for 9MA went to the wrong address and lapsed. The FAA has sent us a temporary and we are hoping they will send us a certificate based on the original (correct) form we submitted.
Maintenance Officer’s Report
See Tom’s handout. 9MA’s new starter is working very well. 63S needed repair to air-cleaner. The nav light that is out is on 88L, not 34H. Tom notes we got a new computer because the old one got too hot and was too old to be worth fixing. We got a used computer. The old computer’s hard drive is in the new computer. The new computer has some free office product on it. Question: does it have Antivirus on it? Tom says it has Microsoft Security Essentials and other security products loaded on it.
3 Bladed Prop
A three bladed prop would give an additional two inches of clearance (with an appropriate choice of three bladed prop). Comment from the floor: keeping the nose strut pumped up would save a lot of issues. The new prop is $11500 plus installation and the price will go up next year.
Florin asks about the status of carpets for 34H? They are ordered, but have not yet arrived.
Tom has written an etiquette note to members. Consensus is to publish on Schedulemaster and via email.
Gerry asks whether or not instructors should be able to reschedule their students. Alan will look into whether or not the security structure is fine enough grained to support granting them that right.
Question from the floor on the fuel injection AD for 88L: When is it required? We need to get it done to maintain airworthiness.
Eric has obtained (via eBay) two new microphones for our planes.
Safety Officer’s Report
No report as Ed absent.
Member Applications
John created the first version of the application Eric sent out to the board. John will turn it into a PDF fillable form.
Insurance Surveys
We are still missing 14. Alan will call the stragglers. Suggestion from the floor is to use Surveymonkey in the future. Alan thinks that sounds good.
Simulator Update
The purchase was suspended until we recovered from the costs of the 9MA purchase. Finances are good enough to pick back up the purchase. Eric will solicit members to be on an evaluation team, and submit a team list to the board for approval. Florin asks whether Gerry would be willing to participate in the evaluation, and Gerry responds that he would as long as it happens before he leaves near the end of October. Eric asks how many people should be on the test team? He suggests 3-4, but Florin notes that may make it hard to get the team together. Two might be a reasonable minimum, but we should have a preference for instructors. Ed is likely to be willing to help. Gerry thinks a 430 in the simulator would be a clear bonus. Eric notes that both of the products under consideration include a 430. Team might be Eric, Gerry, Ed, and Dennis Overman. Eric asks if we should open the team up to other members. Consensus is no.
Clubhouse Door Lock
John Eyre and Jon Gunnarsson need codes. Tim will work with Alan to create a list of codes to be deleted, will delete those codes, and will create codes for John Eyre and John Gunderson.
Airplane Cleaning
The plane bellies are really dirty. Florin has tested a couple of cleaners that did not work well, but has found some things that work. We should know when we’ve put Polyglide on the planes so we don’t wash Polyglide coated planes with SimpleGreen.
New Business
Florin notes that 34H is apparently missing its ELT antenna. He also notes there is a little filliform corrosion at the wing root of 9MA. Florin thinks we should put having 9MA stripped and repainted on the club wish list. Comment from the floor is that we should address the current corrosion now to arrest its growth.
Drawing for flight hour won by: Ron Carper
Meeting adjourned at: 8:29 pm.