“Things are really popping with autogas,” said Kent Misegades, one member of a group, the Aviation Fuel Club, trying to assure more LSA-friendly fuels (like zero ethanol or E0). Though the new Rotax 912 iS can handle ethanol, it truly loves E0 and many experts say it runs more powerfully and cleaner with such fuel, plus wear and tear is reportedly reduced. Another big plus is that such fuel is significantly cheaper than avgas like 100LL.
Kent, who is also one half of the team that blogs about GAfuels for General Aviation News, reported they found a new supplier in California, resulting in the Santa Rosa Airport beginning to sell it. “With the recent rise in avgas prices and the latest news of the Friends of Earth lawsuit against the EPA, my inbox is full of requests for help to get autogas,” added Kent. “Todd Petersen is even busier with autogas STCs, which have been selling well in recent years.”
Kent further described the benefits: “As LSA owners know, autogas is not only an excellent fuel for the engines that power the vast majority of light aircraft, but it is the only affordable, lead-free, FAA-approved aviation fuel we have in any quantity. Despite FAA’s continued insistence on a single, drop-in, one-size-fits-all unleaded replacement to avgas, pilots and airports across the country are working on their own to add autogas as an option.”
AFC Director Dean Billing (the other half of the GAfuels blog team) recently added an interactive map to his website showing the location of all public airports selling autogas. Further details on these airports can be found at his FlyUnleaded.com site. Note that like the list of gas stations selling ethanol-free fuel (Pure-Gas.org), Dean’s list of autogas sellers gains accuracy as users contribute their local knowledge.
Going to Oshkosh? — AFC, with assistance from fuel system maker U-Fuel and autogas STC owner Petersen Aviation, is organizing an event this summer called “Unleaded to Oshkosh” (U2OSH) to promote the use of autogas and demonstrate that a grassroots effort of pilots can make important reductions in the use of leaded fuel while also lowering the cost of flying.
For more information: AviationFuelClub.org, ByDanJohnson.com
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