The first retail sale of General Aviation Modifications' (GAMI's) G100UL unleaded high octane fuel will likely take place today (Oct. 30) at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, California. The airport, operated by Santa Clara County, received 7500 gallons of the STC-approved replacement for 100LL on Monday and employees loaded it into one of two fuel trucks operated by the county. GAMI founder George Braly told AVweb the county, which banned leaded fuel sales at the airport last year, will be selling the fuel at prices comparable to other fuels available at the field and in the same range as 100LL at nearby airports but airport officials were not able to discuss the price of the fuel on Tuesday.
Next press release will be from the opposition moving the goalposts defining “commercially available” yet again.
As a patent lawyer pointed out, the EAGLE deadline of 2030 is conveniently close to GAMI’s patent expiration of 2031. After that, they can proudly claim a “solution!” without having to pay GAMI.
This is an important point. Fuel in that region is roughly $7/gallon. Naysayers will be quick to point out that since fuel at their local municipal airport is only $4/gallon that means G100UL is too expensive and will “kill general aviation!”
This is about as pointless as comparing the price of a single-family home in Boston, MA versus Boston, AR.
I wish our 100LL was $7/gallon. The price for 100LL at HAO (Butler County Ohio Regional) is $7.38/gallon. We have always had the highest prices around in SW Ohio. Based aircraft get a small discount. This isn’t even a Signature facility.
Don’t feel too bad . In the beautiful Hamptons we have a sole provider, Modern Aviation.
We locals get to pay $9.09 with minimal discount for tenants.
Rarely see any sold. KFOK. We hop across to Conn and pay $6 .
Probably sell more G1000 if GAMI lowered roadblocks they do have control over. Sell the STC for the price of postage. Or will no one care about the STC?
This will be interesting to watch. Patents have a defined lifetime, unlike STC’s that seem to have no set expiration date. Even if the formula goes into the public domain, what does the FAA do about the STC? As I understand it, they don’t like to issue copycat STCs. We may have white label 100UL, but still may be paying GAMI for the STC.
I guess it’s axiomatic that if you want a project to fail to meet its goals, give the job to a committee. EAGLE has demonstrated that is still a working predictor. GAMI was able to ignore the niceties and just get the job done. That’s what market disrupters do.
I think it’s great that GAMI could find a carrier that would accept the risk to transport this fuel through 5 states. One tank full to one airport isn’t statistically significant. As litigious as we’ve become someone who feels themselves injured will sue the trucker, GAMI, Santa Clara County and the cafe the trucker stopped at for lunch. We’ll be lucky to see those law suits settled by 2030.
The FAA and ASTM need to step up. Make a couple of people in the agencies (they can later blame) responsible for approving a new standard for unleaded fuels and blessing it for use in flying machines. Then turn it loose so it can be made by many (as many as are interested) producers that can get the price down to something approaching reasonable.
Missing the good old days when the military created the “Standards” and everyone just shrugged and rubber stamped them.
Swift’s UL94 currently arrives in San Jose by rail car with capacity of 27,000 gallons, and is cheaper to refine and still sells for $7.59/gallon (Self Serve) and $7.89/gallon from the county’s truck… Coming by tanker truck from Louisiana will add a little more than $1/gallon to a higher refinery cost, and fuel will likely cost more than $8.50/gallon… I suspect some 100 octane users will continue to fly 30 miles to get 100LL for $5.40/gallon, but we shall see… I agree this is hopeful step for GAMI, but initial reception may not be as enthusiastic as some have hoped for… I suspect flight schools using Swift UL94 will want to continue with that, as all of their fleets are compatible with it.
Reid Hillview airfield (KRHV) is an anomaly in the California market.
By claiming they did not receive FAA Grant Assurances for many years, Santa Clara County was able to eliminate 100LL at KRHV and move to unleaded avgas nearly 3 years ago.
However, over 200 airfields in California now receive FAA Grant Assurances and therefore must comply with the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 in managing their transition to unleaded avgas.
The law is clear. The lack of an industry consensus fuel specification for G100UL continues to be an impediment to its commercial availability in the marketplace.