Unleaded Avgas Approved

Some years ago I obtained a &quot;barn find&quot; vehicle that still had some 1970s leaded gasoline in the tank. After much work getting things ready to run, I decided the best thing to do with the old gasoline was to install a disposable fuel filter and just run it through the engine.<p>The scent of leaded gas is something entirely different from modern products. Sweet-smelling and rather pleasant, it triggered childhood memories I didn&#x27;t know I had.<p>Of course knowing what leaded gasoline smells like could have contributed to other issues...

Approval of specific airframes and engines through STCs (Supplementary Type Certificates) is slightly misleading. In the same way, regular unleaded gasoline is also approved through STCs for many airframes and engines. This isn’t the silver 1:1 bullet that replaces 100LL tomorrow. Nevertheless, I’m all for the 100LL alternatives efforts. If I was buying an aircraft, however, I would be more interested in a Jet-A burning piston (basically diesel). Unfortunately that market is currently limited to Diamond aircraft, which are fantastic if not for their tight grip on their service network.

Per <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avweb.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;gami-awarded-long-awaited-stc-for-unleaded-100-octane-avgas&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avweb.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;gami-awarded-long-awaite...</a>, this new unleaded fuel is currently only approved for Cessna 172s with Lycoming engines, with expansion to more aircraft types coming next year.

It’s crazy to me that we’ve allowed leaded gasoline in general aviation for this long. The price of rebuilding all general aviation engines to take lower octane fuel (or possibly ethanol, which has very high octane but a few caveats) has got to be FAR less than the public&#x2F;mental health burden of allowing leaded avgas.

It&#x27;s been a long time coming - manufacturer&#x27;s been working on this for at least about a decade.<p>What&#x27;s important about this fuel is that it should work in _any_ application that requires leaded gas. The most demanding applications are a small % of the engines overall, but get the most hours and burn the most fuel. So we&#x27;ve been waiting for a drop-in replacement that can supplant leaded gas entirely (market is too small for multiple aviation gasolines to be effectively distributed).<p>Of course, this is going to continue to take way longer to roll out than it should, but this first approval is a very big deal.

I can&#x27;t realistically imagine the FBOs (fuel providers) at many airports providing a type of fuel only approved for C172s with Lycoming engines.<p>I fly out of Boeing Field (KBFI). Often the FBOs have issues with their fuel trucks or simply don&#x27;t provide service. You have to taxi to their ramp. The wait can be significant - and that&#x27;s with just one type of 100LL fuel.<p>Sometimes it&#x27;s better to fly over to KPWT (Bremerton National), an uncontrolled airport, and use their self service Avgas station with a credit card.

my personal guess is that this is going to lead to STCs that allow the installation of diesel engines as replacements for avgas engines. They&#x27;re saying it&#x27;s going to raise fuel by 40 to 80 cents (USD), so it&#x27;ll probably be more than that. One of the pluses of AVGAS engines is that they can be overhauled repeatedly which saves on engine replacement costs over the life time of the plane. But the increase in fuel price is likely to bring it level with the replacement cost of a new diesel engine. Since diesels can run JET-A fuel, which is a global fuel source and much cheaper than AVGAS.. I just don&#x27;t see how AVGAS engines survive in the long term.<p>(older planes can&#x27;t just adopt an electric engine. batteries are too heavy and the airframe won&#x27;t be able to carry batteries that provide 600-800nm of range)

404&#x27;d for me but I found this: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aviationpros.com&#x2F;gse&#x2F;fueling-equipment-accessories&#x2F;fuel-distributors-suppliers-manufacturers&#x2F;press-release&#x2F;21232119&#x2F;general-aviation-modifications-inc-gami-first-ever-high-octane-unleaded-avgas-approved-by-faa" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.aviationpros.com&#x2F;gse&#x2F;fueling-equipment-accessori...</a>

I hope we can get it, or even 94UL (which is 100LL minus the lead) at airports soon. Many of us can run 94UL just fine, but there&#x27;s nowhere it&#x27;s available.

“Avgas” in Swedish means “exhaust”, as in what you get from the tail pipe of a car. But I can’t tell if their use of the name “Avgas” for the product here is intentionally connected to the Swedish meaning of that word or not.

GAMI is a super interesting and innovative company. They also pioneered the practice of using precision-balanced fuel injectors to help plane engines run more smoothly. Factory engines come with radically unbalanced fuel injection, one cylinder might get 10-20% more fuel than others. GAMI developed a procedure for you to test the imbalance in your engine and then sell you a set of balanced injector. That saves fuel, wear on the engine, and even lets you run lean of peak more safely if you want.

It’s a shame Light Sport Aircraft (LSAs) never really caught on. Most of them use Rotax engines which take regular unleaded gasoline. They’re much more fuel efficient too!

Is the link wrong? I&#x27;m getting a 404.

Will this work in the old piston aircraft? I’m thinking about buffalo airways.

Can someone tell me why liquid fuel is called gas in the US?