Happy Birthday, Aviation Fuel Club!

This month marks the first anniversary of the Aviation Fuel Club. Announced on January 20th, 2010, the goal of the Club was "to reduce the cost of flying by providing safe, environmentally-friendly fuel and facilities for Sport Aviation," stated Mike Webb, whose company U-Fuel has sponsored the "AFC". In the past twelve months, your directors have assisted many of the nearly 400 Club members with a variety of issues related to aviation fuels and fuel equipment, financing of fuel facilities, suppliers of autogas and fuel liability insurance. In what can be seen as the Club's greatest accomplishment so far, the number of airports offering autogas increased for the first time in many years during 2011. (The most accurate list of such airports may be found at the FlyUnleaded.com web site maintained by AFC director Dean Billing.) Since autogas represents the only viable, affordable, FAA-approved lead-free aviation fuel, its increased availability provides a glimmer of hope in the otherwise disappointing search for an unleaded replacement to 100LL. To all the members of the Aviation Fuel Club - Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday!

Fly Unleaded to Oshkosh 2012

To underscore the affordability, availability and safety of autogas as an aviation fuel, the AFC will sponsor for the first time an event at EAA AirVenture 2012 called 'Fly Unleaded to Oshkosh 2012'. While a number of organizations have received media attention for their effort to find a drop-in replacement for 100LL, the thousands of pilots who have flown with lead-free autogas since the 1980s have gone largely unnoticed.  We thought it was time to change this. All pilots who can use autogas in their aircraft are invited to participate. Although autogas is not currently available at KOSH, it is sold at many airports located around Oshkosh, as this article from last July describes . Autogas users who attend AirVenture 2012 will receive a prominent emblem for their aircraft and other fun prizes. Together we'll show the aviation media and the general public that many pilots are doing something already to reduce lead emissions caused by aviation, and to lower the cost of flying. Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.    EAA AirVenture 2012 takes place on July 23-29.

More Endorsements for the AFC

The Aviation Fuel Club continues to receive endorsements from leading aircraft manufacturers and the aviation media, for instance:

Roy Beisswenger, Publisher of Powered Sport Flying and host of the popular PSF Radio Show, who commented "The PSF Magazine supports the AFC."

John Gilmore, National Sales Manager for leading LSA maker Flight Design USA, who says "We support this effort."

Ben Sclair, Publisher of General Aviation News, the most widely-read publication for GA, who exclaimed "Back to grassroots, finally!"

The directors of the AFC appreciate the support of these fine organizations and others who have endorsed our efforts to lower the cost of flying for sport aviation.

Autogas in Sparta

AFC member William Willyard recently sent us the good news about autogas at the Paul C. Miller Airport in Sparta, Michigan: "Sparta has offered ethanol-free fuel for many years now. It appeared threatened a few years ago, when the ethanol mandate came about, until a new suppler could be located. There are a number of private air strips around Sparta, most of which, including Sparta, have light planes that prefer autogas. I have switched back to autogas in an attempt to reduce the price of flying. 100LL is $5.99 at my home base 08C and autogas at Sparta is $4.33, along with longer spark plug and oil life it shouldn't take long too pay for the auto fuel STC on my Aeronca Chief. Keep up the good work at the Aviation Fuel Club."

UAT-ARC December Meeting Notes

The FAA's Unleaded Avgas Transition Aviation Rulemaking Committee (UAT-ARC), a group made up of aviation and oil industry representatives that is searching for an unleaded replacement for 100LL, met again this past December. Thanks to Lee Buechler of the Clean 100 Octane Coalition, minutes from this meeting are now available online.     Two excerpts from these minutes are especially interesting:

There is confusion over the term “drop‐in” fuel. It means one thing to the ARC, and another to pilots. The ARC definition means nothing changes in the production and distribution chains, as well as in the operating environment. Nothing. Pilots think of
“drop‐in” in purely an operating sense, without consideration for other matters. From the ARC point‐of‐view there will not be a “drop‐in” fuel. From the pilot’s point‐of‐view there may be – for some, perhaps most, aircraft.

As most AFC members know, autogas, with nearly the same specific density as 100LL (weight/gallon), represents a true  drop-in replacement for avgas that is capable of powering 70%-80% of the entire piston-engine aircraft fleet with little more than a paper STC in most instances.

The minutes also mentioned an ongoing lawsuit from the CEH against the producers, distributors and sellers of 100LL in the state of California:

As a side matter, those in attendance discussed the Center for Environmental Health litigation against avgas distributors in California. It was agreed that this matter probably represents a larger, and more immediate threat, to General Aviation than anything else currently at play and that far too little information has been shared from AOPA, EAA and others.

Lead-free, ethanol-free autogas represents the only affordable, FAA-approved alternative to 100LL that is available today.  Thanks to the efforts of the Aviation Fuel Club, it is making a comback at airports, even in the state of California, home to the CEH.

China's first GA Airport chooses U-Fuel Sport Fuel Station

U-Fuel, the sponsor of the Aviation Fuel Club, recently installed one of its new 3,500g 'Sport Fuel Stations' at the Pucheng airport in Xi'an, China.  Pucheng is China's prototype airport for General Aviation and was the site of the recent China International General Aviation Convention. According to American-trained private pilot Yifei Xu of U-Fuel China, "The history of Pucheng Airport can be traced to the World War II. A General from the Nationalist Party whose name is Yang Hucheng had his base at the county of Pucheng, and this was his airport."  The image here shows a Cirrus (owned by the Chinese company AVIC) being refuled at Pucheng from the Sport Fuel Station.  For more information on these highly-affordable, compact self-service fuel stations, contact Kent Misegades of U-Fuel.

Aviation 101 - Recent GAfuels postings

Two AFC Directors, Dean Billing of Sisters, OR and Kent Misegades of Cary, NC, co-author the GAfuels blog at General Aviation News. Below are links to some of their recent postings on issues related to aviation fuels.

We've hit the blending wall, government reports, December 27th, 2011

Florida to repeal ethanol mandate, December 5th, 2011