Congrats to Chessie Newbold on completing his Private Pilot training and passing his check ride!

It’s almost the club’s second birthday. We are doing well! Our membership is slowly growing.  We’re at 29, currently, and we have a couple more members applying. We’ve had several milestones the past few months, including solos, private pilot certificates, a couple instrument ratings and a commercial rating. The weather has been great for flying this summer and we’re looking forward to a  good fall. We skipped our August meeting, but will resume in September, on the 15th.

We held our December meeting on the 10th. Matt Bucy presented statistics about the club’s last year of operation. All is going well, we are financially stable. Both planes are running well and members are flying them as much as expected. We discussed upgrading the 182 and consensus was that a 430W GPS and HSI should be installed and if possible an engine monitor to make precise leaning possible. Estimates will be sought and the membership will be approached in January to determine how to finance. Installing these two items will make the 172 and 182 panels very close to same.

Congratulations are in order to Tim Terry, our Safety Officer, for passing his instrument rating check ride!

As of September 1st, the club is  the sole owner of its planes, our Cessna 172 and 182RG. The purchase comes after several months of discussion and vetting by our Purchase Committee led by Jim Steproe. The club is now in a position to manage the maintenance and upgrades of the planes. The 182 is especially in need of upgrades and the expressed preference of the membership at prior meetings has been to have the 172 and 182 operationally as similar as possible. So, a Garmin 430 may be in the works for the 182. This will be a topic at our next meeting coming up in a bit more than a week.

The club will be purchasing the aircraft it currently leases in the next couple of weeks. This is an exciting move by the club that will allow the club to take control of the aircraft and upgrade them as the membership sees fit. Our next meeting will focus on how we want to proceed with them once purchased. As always, meetings are the third Thursday of every month.

The transition to owning the club’s aircraft will likely mean the club changes the way membership is handled. The next meeting will dive into that. Most likely will be some kind of capital contribution required of members that would be refundable (in whole or part depending on circumstances) that pays for some portion of each plane a member flies.

Sam Lutz, at 17, the youngest age allowed, passed his Private Pilot practical test with flying colors. Congrats to Sam!

We have migrated our scheduling to AircraftClubs.com. Please use this scheduling system going forward. The old scheduling system has been disabled for new reservations.

Please be sure to sign up for the RUSTY PILOTS SEMINAR ( https://www.aopa.org/forms/event-registration/RP_NH_150418) being held, Saturday April 18th at 1:00, at Granite Air Center, KLEB.

GRANITE AIR CENTER has graciously offered their facilities for this event. Upper Valley Flying Club members, this will be an excellent opportunity to recruit new members. More members means lower per member costs, and possibly more and/or better airplanes! Spread the word, and plan to attend the seminar and promote our club to other attendees. We will be handing out pamphlets and membership applications at this event.

As cold weather approaches, I want to remind all of you that it’s critical our engines are kept pre-heated. When you arrive to fly, you should find the aircraft pre-heater plugged in and operational and the engine should feel warm to touch. Our 172 has an engine block pre-heater that simply plugs in using an extension cord. The 182 has a hot air system for which you’ll need instruction on placement of the duct. We will be moving the 172 into a hangar shortly, but there is power on the pole at the tie down that should be used.

Engine preheat is important for a couple reasons, and not for the reason you might think. We use a multi-viscosity oil which flows well when cold, so sludgy oil isn’t the issue. The real issue is internal engine clearances. Because engines are made of dissimilar metals that expand and contract at different rates, a cold engine may not have enough clearance in its bearings for oil to lubricate adequately. Starting a cold-soaked engine can cause serious engine damage in just seconds and reduce time to TBO. In other words, cold starts can be extremely expensive. Secondly, even when all engine gauges are in the green, a cold-soaked engine may still have components cold enough to impede lubrication which has, in a number of cases, even after long ground runs, caused engine failure after take off. So, in a word: preheat! It’s safer and saves you money.

For more information: a detailed article from AVWeb.

When returning from a flight, you should plug the pre-heater back in so that the engine stays warm for the next flight. Engine pre-heaters are self-regulating and are intended to be kept on at all times through the winter.