The club membership voted to upgrade our 182RG and bring it into the 21st century. It’s a great aircraft but the panel has frustrated many of us with various quirks. We have arranged with Green Mountain Avionincs in Middlebury, Vermont, to do the upgrade. Here’s a mockup of the new panel.
The upgrade includes:
The club membership has voted in new rates for 2017. The new rates reward members who fly two or more hours per month with lower total flying cost the more hours flown. Rate changes will take effect March 1st.
Here’s the breakdown:
| Monthly Dues (Regular) | $150 |
| Monthly Dues (Student) | $75 |
| Cessna 172 Wet Rate per hour tach | $108 |
| Cessna 182 Wet Rate (pre-upgrade) per hour tach | $134 |
| Cessna 182 Wet Rate (after panel upgrade) per hour Tach | $161 |
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.