California Avgas Lawsuit Settled

[gbigs]

California doesn't like Avgas. But they didn't beat the leaded menace out of the FBOs. They settled for a chunk of change and a bunch of warning placards.

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/1 ... ail#223257

[Anticept]

I am interested to see how the mogas will be handed for insurance. Maybe this will be the push that is needed to make mogas available.

[chanik]

http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/12/aviation-fuel-settlement-may-help-phase-out-lingering-source-u-s-lead-pollution

 

100LL availability is in a decaying orbit. GA better get off the toxins before the other 99.6% of the general public turns against our tiny community of pilots and decides to force the issue.

[Anticept]

Most airplanes can run on mogas. They need a few adjustments such as the hose types and o-rings (ethanol eats aviation hose and o-rings up), but it's really only the high powered aircraft that need to use leaded gas. I need to find it, but there's a study on fuel consumption, and it's the big charter companies that use most of the avgas anyways.

 

Changing to mogas also means we can use more and more synthetic oil in aviation engines too. It won't be the same kind as car engines since some of the additives in car engines are not compatible, especially any kind of anti-wear additives (it collects on the piston rings and forms a super hard layer that tears a cylinder up), but the basic oil components are fine.

 

Getting rid of lead means we could finally adapt the use of in-flight engine tuning, since o2 sensors are destroyed by the lead products. Rotax wants to move towards this on the injected engines, but cannot until lead goes away.

 

Downside is the lead also acts like a heat sink, taking a lot of engine heat away with it. A few engines have heat issues around the valve area as a result. Shouldn't be too hard to fix though, especially if they adapted sodium-filled valves on those engines.

 

There will be a few engines out there that will need additional additives. But, necessity is the mother of invention, and maybe a way to resolve it will be found.

[gbigs]

Most airplanes can run on mogas. They need a few adjustments such as the hose types and o-rings (ethanol eats aviation hose and o-rings up), but it's really only the high powered aircraft that need to use leaded gas. I need to find it, but there's a study on fuel consumption, and it's the big charter companies that use most of the avgas anyways.

 

Changing to mogas also means we can use more and more synthetic oil in aviation engines too. It won't be the same kind as car engines since some of the additives in car engines are not compatible, especially any kind of anti-wear additives (it collects on the piston rings and forms a super hard layer that tears a cylinder up), but the basic oil components are fine.

 

Getting rid of lead means we could finally adapt the use of in-flight engine tuning, since o2 sensors are destroyed by the lead products. Rotax wants to move towards this on the injected engines, but cannot until lead goes away.

 

Downside is the lead also acts like a heat sink, taking a lot of engine heat away with it. A few engines have heat issues around the valve area as a result. Shouldn't be too hard to fix though, especially if they adapted sodium-filled valves on those engines.

 

There will be a few engines out there that will need additional additives. But, necessity is the mother of invention, and maybe a way to resolve it will be found.

 

I am on a full synthetic Mobil 1 Motorcycle oil now.  It has better heat properties than the AeroShell.  Of course, I have never burned Avgas in the plane.