Re: Auto Fuel or 100LL Aviation gas

[Mi Vida Loca]

At 03:40 PM 12/17/98 EST, you wrote:
>FAA accident data indicates that aircraft flying on autogas have a lower
>accident and field landing rate than those running on 100LL. This is
>attributed not to the fuel but to the fact that auto fuel is handled primarily
>in 6 gallon cans by the pilot and when you put the fuel in you kind of know
>that you can fly for one hour per can. The point is that any form of fueling
>performed by the pilot is safer than letting the lineboy do it.
>Low compression engines need some lead. This is based on a Continental report
>from the 1940s. What the report said was that the engine needed one tank of
>leaded fuel once after overhaul of the valves. Thereafter it would run fine
>on unleaded gas for the rest of its life.
>I run my engine almost exclusively on unleaded car gas. There are some
>changes such as never having to clean sparkplugs and never having a bad mag
>check. It is different to have these nonproblems but you get used to it.
>98 cents a gallon has another effect on safety. Fuel is so cheap you tend to
>fly more which helps greatly in maintaining currency.
>Auto gas has been suspected in some vapor lock events but I find that before I
>cured my vaporlock problem it was equally likely to happen whether I fueled
>with 100LL or cargas or a mixture of the two.
>Cargas is reported to burn sootier but what you see when you lood into the
>exhaust pipe of an engine that is burning 100LL is lead oxide which was
>commonly used as the pigment in white paint until titnium became commonly
>availible. Car gas lacks the white pigment.
>
>Do these seem like enough reasons to stop polluting the air with lead?
>
>Bob Condon

Bob only left out 2 points I feel are worth noting. #1 100LL contains 4 X as much lead as did the old 80 Octane. Lead fouling of valves and plugs are a significant problem.
#2 aborted takeoffs, forced landings due to lead fouling with the use of 100LL. I have flown a lot of hours with mogas in Texas heat and to date have not experienced a problem with vapor lock. Not saying it can't and doesn't happen but I suspect by shielding the fuel system from heat will virtually eliminate the problem. EAA did extremely intensive testing to get the approval from the FAA and it was found to be safe. And BTW take note of the fact that the next generation of avgas will essentially be slightly better refined unleaded mogas.




Dave
41 Charlie
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