How to survive the transition to unleaded.
As more airfields adopt this policy, it could cause affect flight plans and significantly impact aircraft owners and pilots, especially those operating high-performance models.
Much like Tesla owners who now plan road trips based on the availability of charging stations along the route, flight plans will need an additional layer of forethought to ensure refueling at an airport still distributing 100LL.
The stakes are considerably higher with aircraft, as one does not simply pull over and wait for AAA to arrive with a portable charger when reserves dip dangerously low.
You don’t say.
Well at least there’s this:
G100UL contains no organometallic additives (like TEL, the tetraethyl lead in 100LL). Nor does it have scavenging agents (like the ethylene dibromide required to scavenge the deposits formed by the TEL in 100LL). As a direct result of this, G100UL burns exceedingly clean, with essentially no deposits formed in the combustion chamber. The result is reduced maintenance, better spark plug health, and increased intervals for oil changes.
But is it type certified to work in my Wright 440? I just can’t part with my ’08 model….
https://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Engines_&_Props/Wright_Engine_&_Props_images/Wright-440-engine-left-side.jpg
Aircraft don’t like when AAA arrives.
Fortunately our BD-4 has the Lycoming A2B, 7:1 compression ratio.
Runs just fine on 80/87 which it was designed for and I suspect on fuel a bit lower octane than that. Piper used the engine in the Super Cub which was widely used as a bush plane and might have to run on other than leaded avgas at least some of the time.
I feel sorry for the various warbird owners – they are already power constrained by 100LL instead of 115/145 octane they were designed for, and at some point they just might not be able to fly.
Yep. What worries me too. It’s for that reason I don’t ever expect to see an SR-71 flying at an air show…
That, and the fact that there aren’t any airworthy SR-71s anywhere on the planet, or pilots who know how to fly them…
or pilots who know how to fly them…
Know how to fly them or currently certified to fly them? I can’t believe all the Habu jockeys are deceased just yet. Esp. since NASA was flying them until 1997.
But you’re right about airworthiness. Obtaining the fuel is just one small part of the problem of prepping an SR for flight. Finding even a working start cart could be an issue these days….
I have a bad feeling that we’ve significantly regressed in this area thanks to our reliance on satellites. Everyone talks a big game about Deep Black projects. Frankly enough time has passed since the SR was retired, I don’t believe any of it. If they ever existed, that they made it out of the prototype stage into any kind of production. From WaveRiders to PWDEs to Hypersonic SCRAMJETs. Maybe it’s just cheaper to keep flying the X-37b, even on an Atlas, rather that start over from scratch.
I knew most of the SR-71 pilots at Dryden (now Armstrong), and I can assure you that none of them is young enough to handle the plane today. Steve Ishmael was they guy who took charge of the SRs initially, qualifying on it and then instructing the remainder of the pilots. We became friends over the course of my F-106 project, and he gave me some perspectives on the SR-71. He was about my age then, perhaps a year or two older. He said that it was everything he could do to fly the SR at Mach 3, and he was a wiry, incredibly fit and strong individual. Add 25 years, and I think it would be rather more than he could do to fly it today.
knew most of the SR-71 pilots at Dryden (now Armstrong), and I can assure you that none of them is young enough to handle the plane today
Not to split hairs, but that’s what I meant by certified. I would assume that certification on a particular aircraft doesn’t last forever without renewal.
Steve Ishmael was they guy who took charge of the SRs initially, qualifying on it and then instructing the remainder of the pilots.
Hmm, there’s a fellow who posts here by the handle “Call me Ishmael” One and the same???
I have a video on VHS tape that I can’t watch anymore (no working VHS VCR) from Aviation Week about the SR. One of the pilots interviewed on it mentioned that the Blackbird had an innate ability to detect when you weren’t paying attention and would know exactly what to do to get your attention back, for example, like maybe an un-start on one engine….
No relation. (Sigh…)