Paul,
Perhaps we should think differently, and work within our industry with market forces, instead of expecting a media-damaged bureaucratic government agency to miraculously respond with efficiency. I feel that working with our GAMA OEM’s and the oil companies could be a lot more productive. Let me give you an example of what I consider a complacent attitude on the part of an OEM regarding 100LL:
As I write this, on the east coast at 0830, there are already 44 SR22’s, 29 SR20’s, and 22 S22T’s airborne, and the west coast pilots are not even out of bed. These are not short training flights, these are mostly real trips. Almost all these AVIC International Cirrus’s are powered by AVIC international Continental engines that require 100LL.
At the same time, on the Continental website, these words can be found: "Continental Aerospace Technologies™ Jet-A engines are world-class benchmarks in General Aviation, with more than 7,500 are produced and shipped and more than 2,000 engines in operation today, reporting upwards of 9 million hours. They are favored by flight schools and specified by major OEMs including Tecnam®, Cessna®, Diamond® , Mooney® , Glasair® , Piper® , and Robin® . These Jet-A fueled engines operate on universally-available aviation fuel kerosene (Jet Fuel, Jet-A and other certified aviation Jet fuels). Each is certified to the requirements of FAA, EASA and a further 78 countries."
Notice any manufacturer missing from this list?? Cirrus. WTHeck?
Moving down the line, the 210’s and 206’s can likely be retrofitted with the same package as the Cirrus. The current version of the Textron Panthera is already compatible with unleaded lower-octane fuels. Twin Cessna’s are a little different, but the largest operator, hours-wise, is Cape Air, and they already have fleet replacement plans with Tecnam/Textron products that are compatible with unleaded fuels. Todd Petersen/Impulse has a great STC’d solution for much of the Baron fleet. Every rotax-powered aircraft (and there are now a LOT of them) has a distaste for lead already.
In the end, if the supply of TEL is gone tomorrow, we are not in bad shape. We just need to get the OEM’s to have the smart products, and oil companies to supply the unleaded Avgas (already approved) in large quantities and with low prices.