So, Why Do We Need EAGLE And ASTM, Anyway?

Well, I'm confused again, not that it will come as any surprise to some of those pulling the strings in the transition to unleaded avgas.

You see, several titans of aviation have spoken, either in public forums, to my work superiors or to me directly about my brain-power-to-subject-matter ratio being a little on the lean side when it comes to the complicated matter of aviation fuel.

I will allow that there is some pretty complex chemistry and thermodynamics involved and since the only reason I passed any of my high school science classes was that there were no final exams in them (I loved the 70s), my lack of talents therein might be a handicap.

But I soon confirmed my well-founded suspicion that I didn't need to get a quickie Ph.D. in organic chemistry to discuss what is fundamentally a political and economic subject.

You see, I came from small-town journalism where the few (and dwindling) beat reporters must become instant experts on a huge variety of often complex topics.

So, as with my scribblings on the sewage disposal debate that raged in the little town where I began my journalism career, to the police chief who unilaterally applied the rule of law and the mayor who handed out favors to his buddies like Tootsie Rolls on Halloween, I didn't need to be an engineer, lawyer or municipal land use expert to delve into these matters on behalf of readers.

The one thing that all those involved in these shenanigins had in common was that they or their proxies would tell anyone who would listen that I was too stupid to do my job. They figured questioning my credibility would keep me from nosing around.

Some even suggested to my bosses that I should just accept their wise counsel and run only their considered views when writing about the issues. I declined then as I have since.

So what's confusing me now is that the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) group isn't in full celebration mode and winding up its operations. After all, its mandate is to "eliminate the use of lead in aviation fuel for piston engine aircraft in the United States by the end of 2030 without impacting the safe and efficient operation of the existing fleet."

In the past 10 days two of the three candidate fuels under the EAGLE umbrella have entered full commercial service in the real world and in full compliance with all relevant rules and regulations. The mandate has been achieved six years ahead of deadline. That's a beautiful thing, right?

A week ago about 1000 gallons of GAMI's G100UL was pumped into the tanks of dozens of private aircraft at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, California, after Santa Clara County took delivery of 7500 gallons of the fuel.

The fuel was made in the early spring but not a drop of it had been sold until late October because none of the established aviation fuel distributors would handle it. Their resistance was based on GAMI refusing to obtain an ASTM specification for G100UL. Two years ago the FAA granted an STC approving its use in all gas engines in certified airplanes on the FAA registry. That, says Braly, is all the approval required.

To get the fuel from the refinery in Louisiana to the Bay area, Vitol Aviation, which made the gas, simply found a fuel hauler for whom the FAA stamp of approval (there actually is a stamp) was enough assurance that his truck wouldn't dissolve during the 1500-mile trip. There's no evidence the tanker was damaged.

Santa Clara County, which manages the sale of fuel at Reid-Hillview, had to be similarly confident that its tanks would remain secure, its seals and valves and pumps would continue to do their jobs and that the health and safety of its employees would be protected. The fuel apparatus, including the employees, at Reid-Hillview appear to be operating normally.

And finally aircraft operators, who arguably have the most skin in the game, needed to be absolutely sure they wouldn't find out at 10,000 feet that the fuel doesn't work in their airplanes. There have been no reports of aircraft falling out of the sky. Of course, time will tell but so far the only fault found with G100UL is that any spills that are not cleaned up quickly may leave a yellowish stain on paint.

GAMI's refusal to get an ASTM spec for G100UL has been characterized as a fatal flaw in its bid to be the fuel, with EAGLE going as far as suggesting that ASTM validation actually supersedes the FAA STC, at least in practical terms, because "consumer acceptance will hinge on more than FAA approval."

The FAA has been curiously passive about that attack on the integrity of the STC process, which is vital to the continued upgrade and maintenance of the fleet. If a bunch of trucking companies can block implementation of an STC, what else can be challenged? The mind boggles.

The ASTM requirement has been accepted as policy by the National Air Transportation Association, whose president Curt Castagna is also co-chair of EAGLE. But ASTM validation has also been championed by the other two companies involved in the EAGLE process, LyondellBasell and Swift Fuels.

No one has been more vocal about the need for ASTM acceptance than Chris d'Acosta, the CEO of Swift Fuels, which has created 100R, the fuel he confidently predicts will be the high-octane choice for the piston crowd.

A few weeks ago, the FAA issued an STC allowing Swift's 100R to be used in the R and S model Cessna 172s, the latest iterations of the most numerous aircraft ever built. The choice of fuel-injected 172s as the launch aircraft seemed odd to me. They don't need 100-octane fuel. Their Lycoming IO-360-L2A engines will purr happily on 91 and 94UL aviation fuels and even 93 AKI automotive fuel.

The reason for that choice became clear late last week when it was announced that San Carlos Flight Center in California was operating its fleet of 12 R and S model 172s on Swift's 100R under that limited STC.

That confused me yet again because a few days before the announcement, d'Acosta was on our discussion forum saying how important the ASTM spec is for industry and consumer acceptance of any new aviation fuel. To the best of my knowledge , 100R does not yet have an ASTM specification and yet it's in the engines behind which dozens of kids are learning to fly.

It also got to San Carlos somehow and is in the fuel dispensing equipment there that's been designated for 172 S and R models. There's no other way to describe this than as commercial use of the fuel, and yet it's going on without the ASTM stamp (I don't know if they actually have stamps) of approval that Swift has said is absolutely necessary.

I asked d'Acosta to square that up for me but he hasn't responded.

The events of the past week make me wonder what, if any, place ASTM actually has in all of this. If trucks full of fuel with no ASTM spec are crossing the country, if airport fuel sellers are putting it in their equipment and airplane operators, including flight schools, are buying it based on the FAA approval, then what value does the ASTM spec add?

Also, since throughout this tedious process the EAGLE mantra has always been "the market will decide" the future fuels that power our passion, we have to wonder why we need EAGLE anymore. Two of three candidate fuels under assessment by the group are now duking it out for their share of the biggest light aircraft market in the country. They're doing it legally without any input, influence or assistance from EAGLE.

Why are taxpayers spending millions of dollars a year (we hope to find out exactly how many millions soon) on a process that has been eclipsed by the very outcome it was touting as a final solution?

There are already airports and FBOs all over California watching what's going on at Reid-Hillview and San Carlos and it's inevitable that they will, at least to some degree, join in. There's apparently at least one more airport planning to offer G100UL in the next few weeks.

California has always been the first to try new environmental measures, but other states are often quick to follow. Colorado and New York come to mind as jurisdictions that are just looking for a pathway to replace 100LL with unleaded fuel that works.

And let's not forget the hundreds of environmental groups, from parents around the kitchen table to well-funded, well-organized lobbies that are ready to use California as an example in their own efforts to rid the air of lead. Assuming things go the way they often do, unleaded avgas could soon be a hot commodity.

And there's no way the big fuel distributors will continue to sit collectively on the sidelines watching all that business drive by them.

Ironically, EAGLE's focus now seems to be keeping 100LL available, instead of hastening its demise, on the rapidly vanishing premise that there isn't a suitable unleaded replacement. It also seems hell-bent on using up every minute of the six years left before the agreed-upon 2030 deadline for the transition to unleaded. It seems to me the market will take care of that if EAGLE just gets out of the way.

Of course I'm willing to be enlightened by those who have criticized my dim-witted attempts to explain all this. To be sure, I've made some mistakes and mischaracterized some aspects of the issue, but I've also owned that and corrected errors promptly, I think. It definitely is a really complex topic but I think I've got the basics now.

Meanwhile, about those controversies when I was on the sewage, police and civic politics beat at a small-town daily:

The sewer system filled a neighborhood with two feet of euphemistically termed "treated wastewater" causing millions in damage. I took a great picture of one of my would-be mentors in hip waders watching his career go down the drain.

The very senior cop who was fixing tickets to impress local bigwigs was convicted in court and fired in disgrace by his police force. The mayor spent seven months in jail.

I went straight from writing about sewage to my dream job of writing about airplanes, but they are the same thing in so many ways. The same ambitions and desires drive every type of public policy, and maintaining the transparency that fuels the process is vital.

Dealing with idiots like me comes with the territory.