July 14, 2014

Valley Fliers July Board Meeting

Meeting Commenced at: 6:31 pm.

Present: Botezatu, Patrick, DeWitt, Bryce, Lawton, Vader, plus 8 members.

Absent or Excused: None

Approval of JuneMeeting Minutes

Florin moved to approve. Tom seconded. The minutes were approved unanimously.

Treasurer’s Report

See Alan’s handout. Quarterly insurance was paid out in June. B&C refers to bills from Mike Boatz. The “airport fees” were for landing and departure fees collected by Vancouver, BC and Santa Monica. The Schedulemaster bill is an annual expense. The Schedulemaster fees did go up significantly, but that may be due to the addition of the simulator. We should be able to audit the bill online to determine if the increase is due to the simulator. One member is far enough in arrears that we will have to take his membership. Quarterly taxes are due this month. Insurance renewal is coming up in September; we will look at alternative policies prior to that time. The uncategorized income will need to be discussed by the board. The 34H maintenance costs were an annual, mags, and IFR certification. The club is financially in great shape. Florin asked if we are getting clearer bills from Mike Boatz. Alan responded that it came in a timely way and was better itemized than usual.

Maintenance Officer’s Report

See Tom’s handout.

9MA. The strut fairings are here, but not yet installed.

63S. Member reported a gas smell in the cockpit. Mike Boatz found an issue with the o-ring, found a little seepage, and replaced the o-ring.

The air conditioner initially worked well, but has stopped. Brian notes that there is a reservoir that captures the condensation. That reservoir needs to be emptied. The board briefly discussed free flying time or a credit for Brian to recognize his long-term loan of the air conditioner.

There was also a discussion of defrosting the refrigerator in the office. That is generally agreed to be a good idea.

34H. The IFR certificate was done fast and on time. We are monitoring an oscillation in the tach at low RPM settings. Florin believes the oscillation may be due to the cable being over-tightened. Florin will try to check on it. Tom recently checked and cannot confirm the cowling squawk as an issue. The rear intercom issue will continue to be monitored as it seems intermittent.

88L. No real issues. Comment from the floor: the fuel totalizer generates spurious messages. The board should consider disconnecting is as it does not work well.

Safety Officer’s Report

No specific issues, but a question about the web site. Ed asks if he creates a page describing how to transition Boeing’s airspace whether it could be posted on the site? Eric confirms he can and will post it. Comment from the floor: Husky Stadium is a TFR when there is a game. That should be reflected in Ed’s writeup. The TFRs for stadiums are not published in the same way as regular TRFs.

Old Business

Camera System

Eric notes that the member who is proposing a solution is not here. Florin tables the item. Jameson has one unused that he would sell the club. Jameson will have Ron look it over to evaluate the system. Jameson thinks it has six cameras. It can store to a local hard drive and or the cloud. It can trigger off motion or time, and can be checked via the Internet. Florin will also evaluate it.

BATD Status, including table

The BATD is done, up and operational. Eric hasn’t received any comments from members asking for changes. Jameson notes that he has some suggestions. One of the wind settings doesn’t default back to zero. Tom observed that there were lights on the computer that came on after restoring power. Eric noted that if that happens the system should be booted up and then powered back down.

Square Cash

Alan hasn’t done anything on it yet. He needs to write a procedure. Jameson suggests we charge members who pay with cards the card fees. We’ll talk about it next meeting.

Air Conditioner

Discussed above.

Insurance

Eric called AOPA and others. All of them will need the pilot information sheets we generally have to give Avemco. Eric suggests we wait to obtain those until we can get our documentation together. While we are doing that, he will let Avemco know we are looking at alternatives. Suggestion from the floor: use SurveyMonkey. Eric likes that idea. Eric will check the ratings for the insurance companies. We also will need to review the liability coverage we have.

Garmin 430

We want a WAAS, but we made a mistake. There was a guy who offered one for sale, Alan responded and he asked us to pay through eBay so it would be secure. Alan was trying to get out of town. We were scammed. Alan accepts responsibility, but Florin proposes that the club will cover some of the costs. The loss was $3000. Eric notes that it could’ve been a club account (Alan used his business account). Everyone but Alan seems to agree the club should reimburse his loss. Florin moves that we reimburse Alan. Eric seconds. The motion passed with all board members but Alan voting yes.

Gerry has researched what would be required to upgrade us to WAAS. There is no easy way to get it done. He got a quote from Pacific Aero. It was $8.1k for the new unit, $2k for the indicator, plus installation. Total is close to $12k. Florin asks if we should dream on it a while. Ed notes there is clear value in upgrading the IFR kit for 34H. Gerry suggests we watch eBay for a month. There are reputable vendors where we could buy a used unit. Alan notes we could contact one of those vendors and try to buy it from them directly, thus saving them the eBay and PayPal fees. Gerry will contact Cannon, Wentworth, and possibly others and will update us as soon as he can. Alan notes that we still want WAAS in 63S. Gerry notes that Garmin will do it for $3500, then we will need a new antenna, etc. to complete the upgrade. We could save $3500 if we can live without WAAS in 34H. Gerry says indicators are generally not available used. Tom asks if ADS-B is required by 2020 for VFR aircraft. Answer: yes, if they will fly where Mode C is required today. Tom asks if a lack of WAAS will limit resale value of 34H. Consensus is not really. The board is leaning toward purchasing a new WAAS GPS for 63S and cascading the non-WAAS box to 34H.

New Business

Eric introduced a prospective member, Josh Coggins. Starting around age 16, Josh has flown gliders ultralights, and para-motors and is looking to get into fixed wings. He has 50 or so hours, but does not yet have his private. The board unanimously accepted him as a member once we have an opening.

Drawing

Free flight hour won by: Ron Carper

Meeting Adjourned at: 7:58.