The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer, aviation sales rep for U-Fuel, and president of EAA1114.

By Dean Billing, director, Aviation Fuel Club

First, let me say, “OCTANE IS NOT AN INDICATION OF POWER”! If you learn nothing from this post, always remember octane is not a specification, or the measurement, of gasoline power or quality. The octane rating is only a measure of a fuel’s ability to burn in a controlled manner, rather than exploding or detonating in an uncontrolled manner. The higher the octane specification the more resistant the fuel is to detonation in a high compression engine.

Now comes the really confusing aspect of octane rating for gasoline. [Read more...]

The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer, aviation sales rep for U-Fuel, and president of EAA1114.

Recently, your bloggers were discussing the use of diesel fuel at airports with Mike Webb, founder of U-Fuel and former owner of the FBO Oshkosh Aero. Mike had mentioned the common practice at airports of using waste Jet-A fuel from daily tank sumpings (knowing at airports as “thiefing”) in ground equipment powered by diesel engines. But are Jet-A and diesel fuel really the same? GAFuels blogger Dean Billing says no, but its use in older diesel vehicles is probably OK. This lead to a broader discussion of the use of Jet-A in aircraft compression ignition engines.

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The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer, aviation sales rep for U-Fuel, and president of EAA1114.

Evidence of the growing interest in the use of affordable, lead-free, ethanol-free autogas, AKA, “Mogas,” in General Aviation is evidenced by Ben Visser’s recent article on the topic, The fuel of the future: Is it already here? and the results of a survey conducted by AVWeb. Further evidence is the overwhelming interest we’ve experienced to the introduction of the Aviation Fuel Club, the new Sport Fuel program, and thousands of comments on our petition calling on a ban of the blending of ethanol in Premium gasoline. There remains, however, some confusion about the pro and cons of using Mogas, something we hope to dispel below:

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The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer, aviation sales rep for U-Fuel, and president of EAA 1114.

According to AirNav, since Dec. 1 2010, the number of FBOs in the U.S. offering 100LL avgas has dropped from 3,537 to 3,515. This reflects the general decline in sales of 100LL avgas nationally, which has decreased by approximately 4% annually in the past decade, the result of heavy pistons moving to turbines, lighter aircraft shifting to more efficient, autogas-burning LSAs, and an overall decline in the number of hours flown by pilots annually.

During this same period of time, the number of FBOs listed as offering autogas has remained constant at 107, while two in central North Carolina, Raleigh East (W17) and Gilliam-McConnell (5NC3), recently added autogas alongside their 100LL pumps. [Read more...]

The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer, aviation sales rep for U-Fuel, and president of EAA1114.

As the number of signatures on our petition to the EPA urging a ban on the blending of ethanol in 91+ octane gasoline surged past 6,500 this week, we noted one recent comment on the Pure-Gas.org listing of sources for E0, this one from a North Carolina firefighter: Recently our fire department was responding to a brush fire where the fire was about to get into a barn. Our brush truck has a gasoline powered engine (which is almost new) in which we had a difficult time cranking to extinguish the fire. Upon our investigation after the fire we found the cause of the failure of the pump operating was due to ethanol gas.

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In the Winter 2011 issue of “The Flock”, Jabiru USA’s newsletter, owners of Jabiru airplanes were notified that previous approvals for autogas containing up to 10% ethanol have been rescinded:

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Letter to the Editor By Todd Petersen, President, Petersen Aviation

A recent post in GANews by Chris Dancy, Media Relations Director of AOPA, indicated that they felt they have been mischaracterized in our recent blog postings. Nothing could be further from the truth.  The GA Avgas Coalition has repeatedly ignored mogas as an alternative for aircraft owners and pilots despite our pleas to the aviation alphabet groups for support of ethanol-free fuel (E0) in light of the ever-increasing use of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply.  Now quite suddenly, we seem to have their attention.

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The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer and aviation journalist.

Despite widespread concern over property damage caused by ethanol’s presence in fuels in the U.S., and direct links between ethanol production, rising food prices and unrest in the Middle East, Europe recently approved the use of up to 10% ethanol in automotive fuels. Given the widespread use of Mogas in Europe’s aviation community, EASA, the European Aviation Safety Agency, has issued a renewed warning titled SIB 2007-01R1, “Use of Automotive Gasoline (Mogas) containing Bio-Ethanol”, which can be found here.  This EASA Safety Information Bulletin contains the following:

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The GAfuels Blog is written by two private pilots concerned about the future availability of fuels for piston-engine aircraft: Dean Billing, Sisters, Ore., an expert on autogas and ethanol, and Kent Misegades, Cary, N.C., an aerospace engineer and aviation journalist.

Many of our readers may have heard that the EPA has granted an E15 waiver for 2001-2006 autos and light duty trucks, in addition to the former E15 waiver granted back in October for 2007 and newer vehicles. Theoretically this means that about 2/3 of the auto fleet in the US could pump E15 into their fuel tanks if they wanted to. However, the waiver is voluntary and, in fact, nobody has to actually make E15.

As you can imagine, the ethanol industry is ecstatic. Their foremost lobby, Growth Energy, gushed “… last week’s decision blew a hole in the blend wall.” The reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.

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