Gateway Pilots

Return of the Newsletter

Our monthly newsletter is back, after a “brief” hiatus. Send submissions to Art Zemon. We are looking for a volunteer to mail printed copies of the newsletter to those who do not have email.

From the June 2010 Meeting

Elections were held and the new board (which is the old board graciously joined by member-at-large Rosemary Petrusso) was unanimously approved.

In July, we will try a joint meeting the the St. Louis chapter. We will meet at Air Associates at Spirit of St. Louis airport. The food will be catered by the Pilot Shop.

There will be an airshow July 3 & 4 at St. Louis Downtown airport. Both the EAA and the Greater St. Louis Air & Space Museum will have food. There will be lots of airplanes on static display along with thrills and chills in the air. This is the first time that Fair St. Louis has had an airshow since 2005. There are more details in the St. Louis Business Journal.

EAA chapter 32 (at Smartt field) has movie night on the last Saturday of each month and visitors are welcome. Festivities start with a pot-luck dinner at 6:30pm (and BBQ meat if you bring a small donation). Movies are projected on a BIG screen and start at about 8:30pm in the summer. The movies on Saturday night, July 26 are Memphis Belle and Memphis Belle, first the documentary from 1944 and then the movie from 1998. More details are available on EAA 32′s web site.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting will be Wednesday, July 7 at 6:30pm at Spirit of St. Louis airport, Air Associates, 18600 Edison, Chesterfield, MO. This is a joint meeting with the St. Louis MPA chapter. Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541 or email Donna Crandell.

Upcoming Events

Also see the Upcoming Events page.

The June Meeting was the Chapter’s annual picnic at Smartt Field. The event was held at “Fly Girl’s Diner” on the new owners first day. There were 47 members and guests in attendance. The food was delicious. The new owners did a great job in re-decorating the restaurant. Music was provided by Rick and Gene Albrecht’s group “One of a Kind”. We did elect 3 board members to 3 year terms they are: Steve Pierce, Harold Booher and Chuck Maggart. A good time was had by all.

The information on our July program is below. Please come and join us.

“FROM STEAM TO GLASS”

A Brief History Of Aircraft Instrumentation From the Wright Brothers To Glass Cockpits

Presented By Gary Liming - private pilot, BS Physics, MS aviation Safety, built his own CH801

(4 seat high wing STOL airplane) at Creve Coeur

When: Wednesday July 22, 2009

Where: Columns Banquet Center

Dinner 6:30 Program 7:30 P. M.

We meet at THE COLUMNS, 711 Fairlane, St. Charles. MO 63303. This is on the south service road for 1-70 just west of Fifth Street. The doors open at 6:00 and the buffet line begins at 6:30 followed by the program at 7:30. It is not necessary to dine with us to attend the program at 7:30 p.m. We are a friendly and informal group, and we do ask that you make dinner reservations by the Monday evening preceding the meeting. Cost of the meal is $15.00 For dinner reservations call Lana Maggart at 314-731-0199 or email donna.crandell@cepm-us.com.

From the April Meeting

John Bales

John Bales, Director of Aviation at Spirit of St. Louis Airport, regaled us with interesting tidbits about a local aviation treasure which we take for granted. Your poor correspondent scribbled as quickly as he could but Mr. Bales was a veritable fount of knowledge so these are just a few of the highlights. (In case you missed that subtle hint, it means that you should never miss another MPA meeting because nothing can substitute for actually being there yourself!)

Spirit of St. Louis Airport is the busiest GA airport in the central region, handling about 113,000 operations last year and, even so, they want our business: practice approaches, pattern work, touch & goes, etc. The airport exists to serve us and John strongly encouraged us to take advantage of it.

KSUS has had nine, consecutive perfect Part 139 certification inspections. No small feat!

Spirit Airport is a self-sufficient St. Louis County department, generating its income from wholesale fuel sales (not from landing fees or fuel surcharges on top of retail sales), real estate development and management. KSUS contributes about $400M to the local economy.

Langa Air has begun flight training operations at KSUS and is up to 7 planes. They are a part 141 flight school.

Money Saving Tips

John had two money saving tips:

1. If your aircraft is based in Missouri and has a gross takeoff weight of more than 3,000 pounds, you may be able to save on your local property tax. You aircraft is now classified as a “commercial” aircraft (even if it has no commercial purpose) which means that you only need to pay tax on the portion of the miles you actually fly in (over?) Missouri. See http://www.stc.mo.gov/, click on “Forms” and then on “Original Assessment Section” and then scroll down to the airline industry.
2. No Missouri sales tax is due on parts for airplane maintenance. Given the price of airplane parts, this can save you several dollars!

Pilot Shop Reopens

The new Spirit Pilot Shop opened (new business, same old location) on May 1. Stop by Monday-Friday 8:00-7:00, Saturday 8:00-5:00, or Sunday 10:00-4:00.

New Newsletter Editor

It has been my pleasure to write this newsletter for the past two years and now it is time for someone new to step forward, dance his or her fingers across a keyboard, and dazzle us with wit and information. Are you the one? It takes me about an hour a month to write these few lines and another hour for Candy and me to print and stuff the 26 copies in envelopes for the members who don’t have email. Updating the web site is trivial and I’ll be glad to show you how. Journalistic fame and fortune await; all you have to do is say, “Pick me! Pick me!”

May Meeting

The Thursday, April 14, 2009 meeting will be at The Columns. Joe Dobronski will give a presentation on his 10,000 mile delivery of a Cessna U-206 for Wings of Hope, flying from Spirit Airport to Botswana, South Africa, in December 1992.

Phone your dinner reservations to Jean Murry at (314)469-3541.

Free WINGS Flight Training

“Fly safe” is more than just a saying to Rick Albrecht. He is generously offering up to three free hours of WINGS-related flight training to all Gateway MPA members. Contact Rick at adv.av.training@sbcglobal.net for full details.

Upcoming Events

You can always find the latest list of upcoming MPA events on our web site at http://gatewaypilots.org/upcoming-events/.

This year, all meetings on are the third Wednesday of the month except in December. See the upcoming events page for weather minimums and times.

[TABLE=2]

Gateway Pilots Web Site

Did you know that there are good things on the web site that did not make it into the newsletter? Drop by www.GatewayPilots.org.