Fuel Fight Heats Up A Little

Tensions flared briefly at a forum on progress toward an unleaded replacement for avgas on Monday. During the public comment period after formal presentations, Tim Roehl, president of General Aviation Modifications Inc., challenged a couple of points made during the presentations of members and support staff from the End Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions and told the crowd, smaller than in previous years, that contrary to assertions made during the formal part of the forum, GAMI's G100UL is indeed ready for distribution and sale. EAGLE member Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers' Association, stood up and dismissed Roehl's assertion. "I totally disagree but that's a discussion for another day," said Bunce.

In earlier comments, Bunce said his organization is adamant that any new fuel will be approved through "transparency and a peer reviewed process" which has traditionally been done through ASTM International. "Transparency is so absolutely vital for us," said Bunce.

Refiner Vitol Aviation has 1.3 million gallons of G100UL in tanks in Louisiana and says it has been completed vetted as ready for sale through its STC. GAMI and Vitol have consistently said the FAA approval of an STC covering all gasoline engines on the FAA registry satisfies all the regulatory and safety requirements to begin retail distribution of the fuel, but there are critics who say it needs a consensus standard determined by an independent organization like ASTM to satisfy concerns about materials compatibility.

AOPA President Mark Baker said his organization is using G100UL in a Beech Baron it operates and said that based on the 200 hours of experience with the fuel "GAMI is as good or better" than 100LL. He also said the process has to "move forward" to get the correct fuel.

The balance of the meeting was a reiteration of the stated goals of EAGLE, which, increasingly, has become focused on maintaining the supply of 100LL. The existence of the commercial quantity of G100UL has prompted politicians in California and Colorado to try to ban 100LL in favor of filling airport tanks with G100UL. Legislative and legal initiatives in both states are moving through their respective processes.

Meanwhile testing of the last remaining candidate under the congressionally mandated Piston Aviation Fuel Initiative (PAFI) is slowly progressing at the FAA's Atlantic City test facility. About 23% of materials compliance testing, 25% of durability testing and a few percent of several other categories have been done on Lyondell/Basell/VP Racing's entry. It's also been fully tested on the airframe of a Lancair Legacy and on a Continental TSIO 550K engine.