See “10 Mogas Myths”, GA News, online, March 16th, 2011. Looks like many still abound. Good thing Rotax, the world’s largest maker of aircraft engines, ignores the myths. 100% of its engines are designed to run best on 91 AKI E0 Mogas. Some airports here in the Southeast are selling it for around $5 per gallon. Stick the higher costs for high octane avgas required by a minority of aircraft to the flyers of light aircraft and you kill off the next generation of pilots. Everyone loses. Small fuel systems can be leased, for instance from U-Fuel.
The House was in session all last week, summer recess started Monday for them.
As for “how this hearing occurred without the FAA or EPA.” Well, that’s a really good question for both Agencies. I’d sure like to hear what they’re hiding from Congress. From everything I’ve read, GAMI jumped through more hoops than necessary and their fuel was basically certified by the office doing the testing. It was just sent up to the DC Office for the big boys to take credit. But they screwed the pooch for some reason…
Ethanol free gasoline availability is highly variable and cannot be relied on. It’s very hard to find in my area. The stations that do have it (Rec 90) are often out.
Slightly off-topic. I wish pure-gas.org’s data was good but it unfortunately shows an abundance of very old listings almost anywhere you look. I have used the website to try and find ethanol-free gas on motorcycle rides and have had to remove several stations over the years.
What I do not understand - why hasn’t Todd Petersen been invited to weigh in on this topic? For over 30 years he has done the bulk of aviation fuel tests on airframe / engine combinations required for his 100+ STCs, covering everything from Cubs to DC-3s. In one sense, he has been providing a safe, powerful, FAA-approved, highly available and affordable lead-free aviation fuel - Mogas - for the vast majority of piston aircraft. Perhaps AVWeb can interview the “Dean of Mogas” to get his take on things. I’m sure he has some thoughts on all of this.
Art,
As I understand it, the mogas sales at many airports were not sufficient to keep the mogas from going bad in the tank.
Mogas is a local matter, not a national one. If your field has sufficient demand, then open a frigging pump and go into business. It’s allowed.
If you are one of the jerks hoping to increase the value of their plane by ridding the world of high performance pistons, then I guess you can keep trying.
After you succeed, no whining when there aren’t enough owners of certified aircraft to protect you from the next purge (not that we are doing that well now).
I’m surprised the FAA didn’t come to the hearing to brag about their record in killing off the piston aviation fleet altogether. No planes, no lead!
Not necessarily. Those using Mogas now are contributing zero income to airports and their fuel taxes are going to build the highway infrastructure, not aviation. As some have said, Mogas-ready aircraft use a smaller volume of fuel than those needing Avgas, so their switch to Mogas if available at airports would hardly be noticed in lower avgas sales. Small fuel systems can be leased. Better yet, let a private individual/business, flying club or FBO finance them so the airport has zero costs.
The problem is, that there is no problem.
Both CO2 and using low-lead fuels is not a real problem of concern in the context of global transportation.
The problem is that some individuals disreguard both reason and porportion in order to put a check in a box that they have created. The same people prize that check in their box higher than tangible helping or creating (or even just leaving other people alone). It’s insideous and no one seems to have the guts to tell them to stop destroying.
Perhaps he should be enraged by false information. A racetrack that went out in the 1980’s, as well as a chemical company, were in close proximity to the airport. Couldn’t the soil samples be possibly tainted by said structures? No, it must be the little aircraft running low lead fuel that were causing such high reading…
Karrpilot, they were not looking for truth; they used paid studies to do extrapolations and correlations and then wrapped it up all up in scientific terminology to simulate a real study. I’ve read all the “reports” and all of them have logic errors and unsubstanciated conclusions. Junk science. Basically the city airport land is more valuable to them as another industrial park so what better way to close an airport than to scare people?
Our airport is owned and run by the city. They have implemented “fuel flowage” fee for those of us who bring Mo-gas onto the airport. It is on the honor system and it is very reasonable charge so I, for one, don’t mind paying it. Our airport has a lot of Rotax engines and I understand that the ratio of those using Avgas to Mo-gas is about 50/50. I have no problem finding ethanol free Mo-gas and have not had a problem running it in my 582. I have learned to treat Mo-gas differently from Avgas. I do not let it sit in the tank for long and especially not in the carb for extended periods. If Mo-gas sits it will turn to varnish and clog your carb jets in a short period of time. I try to run my engine minimum of 2X per month even if I can’t fly for some reason. If the fuel companies could come up with an ethanol free unleaded that is more stable then maybe FBOs would start carrying it at the fuel farms which would then make a big difference in the leaded/unleaded ratio.
But DDT overuse did cause issues, and lead poisoning does “dumb down” kids (though they usually eat it, in the form of old paint.)