John,

I agree with everything that you have said. However, the information 
for the fly-no-fly 5% and acholol testing was in the same package as 
the EAA Mogas STC with the same letterhead. In fact the STC requires 
that the acholol testing instructions be onboard with your POH. It 
does seem like conflicting instructions, but one might be for legal 
purposes and the other might be for practical/realworld purposes. It 
seems the EAA has drawn the line with E10 which is where state 
legislation is headed in most states.

It seems like I have the choice of having a stalled engine because of 
a stuck valve by using 100LL with the resulting lead fouling or 
having a stalled engine because Mogas might have alcohol in it that 
separates in flight. I think I will "test" my Mogas for alcohol in 5 
gallon quantities. Then I will separate the resulting "water/alcohol 
stage." And then I will "test" it again for alcohol. There seems to 
me that there will be some point I will find little or no alcohol 
remaining in my fuel even though it might be 3 points lower on octane.

My other choice is to use 100LL that is treated with TCP (that is not 
currently available and needs special handling because it is 
explosive).

Frank Nelson

--- In [email protected], John Roach <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Frank,
> I believe the EAA position on ethanol is not to use it under their 
STC. 
> Here is a quote about compliance from the EAA web site:
> /"EAA STC approvals are for the use of unleaded regular automobile 
> gasoline, *excluding gasoline containing alcohol*, manufactured to 
the 
> ASTM Specification D-4814 (American Society of Testing Materials, 
1916 
> Race St., Philadelphia, PA 19103). Specification D-4814 superseded 
> Specification D-439. "
> /The 5% figure you refer to is also from their web site in an area 
> discussing alcohol that may be in gasoline. This information is 
found on 
> a page which speaks of how to detect alcohol in your gas, how to 
measure 
> the amount of alcohol in your gas, and the effect of alcohol on 
your 
> engine and fuel systems. Many EAA members are flying experimental 
> (rather than certificated) aircraft and I believe they have more 
freedom 
> as to fuel choice than pilots of certificated aircraft. The 5% 
alcohol 
> level is noted DO NOT FLY as a warning that there is danger to 
being off 
> the ground with 5% or more alcohol in your tank. However, the mogas 
STC 
> is pretty plain -- NO ethanol is approved.
> I believe the recent EAA article about mixing mogas and 100LL 
referred 
> only to unleaded mogas and was in reference to the use of this mix 
to 
> control lead deposits while TCP was unavailable. I saw nothing in 
the 
> article that referred to ethanol or changed the EAA position as 
quoted 
> above.
> 
> John Roach
> N 2427H
> 


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