WACO, Texas — Swift Fuels‘ UL94 unleaded avgas is now available at Texas Aero at the Waco Regional Airport (KACT).
“Offering UL94 to our customers is a key differentiator compared to many nearby FBOs that only sell 100LL (leaded) avgas,” said Barry Johnson, Vice President of Operations at Texas Aero. “This premium unleaded fuel affords our flight school client (Universal Flight Concepts) a superior cost advantage over others by extending our Lycoming engine maintenance to 100-hour oil change intervals vs. typical 25- or 50-hour intervals. Pilots have been excited ever since we announced our intention to offer this fuel. We believe our transient air traffic wanting to use this fuel will also grow our business.”
“Swift Fuels’ UL94 is the only commercially-available unleaded avgas in the US, it’s sold nationwide, it’s commercially insured for aviation, and pilots who use it love it,” added Chris D’Acosta, CEO for Swift Fuels.
According to Swift officials, more than 110,000 aircraft are already FAA-authorized to use the UL94 Avgas as a “drop-in ready” fuel assuming they have the appropriate Type Certificate or mogas STC. Swift UL94 is compliant with all ASTM D7547 avgas specifications and D4814 auto gasoline specifications.
UL94 avgas is not a full replacement for 100LL for higher compression engines. Only aircraft with engines requiring 94 motor-octane avgas or lower are compatible, which represents 65% of the US piston fleet, according to Swift officials.
There’s also another item to consider, the lower the octane rating on the fuel per gallon or volume the more fuel it takes to produce the same horse power of the higher octane fuel. In other words, one gallon of 94 octane will not take you as far as one gallon of 100 octane. Yet another way of the mfg. making more money and still ripping us more….It’s all about making more money, that’s the bottom line. Why doesn’t 86 octane auto fuel produce the same horse power than 92 octane auto fuel? Because of the octane content. You will be burning more lower octane fuel to go the same distance as higher fuel, thus you will be filling up your gas tanks more often than you do now !!! Now, Isn’t that a rip??? still and continuing, that’s why it’s taking so long for the mfg. to come up with unleaded fuel ( allegedly) trying to figure out how to increase the price of fuel per gallon and nothing else…
The octane rating of a fuel has little to do with the energy content in BTUs per gallon.
A higher octane rating allows an engine to run with a higher compression ratio, which can then allow the engine to produce more HP.
Higher octane gas , 93-94 , in general has a lower energy content than 86 octane, about 114,000 btu per gallon.
Ethanol has an octane rating of 104, but has only 76,000 btu of energy.
Adding 10 % ethanol causes the resulting fuel to have 3 -4% lower energy and causes 3-4% lower fuel economy, even though it is still 86 octane.
Some race engines run on 100% ethanol and produce very high hp vs running on gasoline. But the engine will require 50% higher fuel-air ratio, so the fuel economy is much lower.
Diesel fuel has an energy content of 129,000 btu per gallon, 13% higher than gasoline. So this , and the much higher compression ratio, yields higher fuel economy. But, Diesel has no octane rating….
70% of the GA fleet, those with low compression and are non-turbo-charged engines, can use 87 octane fuel, ‘mogas’. But the ‘powers that be’ want a single fuel replacement solution for 100LL, which is actually 130 octane, running full rich. So, we run with excessive lead that fouls plugs and contaminates the oil.
Where is 9FO?
In Dublin, Texas (central Texas).
I want to try some. I hanger my 182 in Lockhart. The avgas cost $4.85.
Can I use it in my 1999 model S?
You can visit Swift’s website to check for compatibility: http://swiftfuels.com/stc/
I happen to have the mogas stc for my old Cessna. I’m not sure why because there is no ethanol free, 93 octane auto gas available in California. So, I have to burn leaded fuel , vs an unleaded fuel, that would be lower cost, because of California ‘clean air’ rules.
I will not use any fuel that costs MORE than 100LL avgas. Maybe some liberal, ‘save the planet’ pilot might.
How much a gallon?
from the FBO website;
Avgas: $5.75
Swift UL94: $5.99
So, who will use it ?
our Avgas in No Cal is $4.75
We are the first airport in Texas to sell Swift UL94, and our PIREPs on the fuel have varied from longer maintenance cycles (cost and time savings) to cooler head temperatures, but nothing but benefits to using it.
Our main market ranges from the LSA & Experimental communities (lots of RVs!) to flight schools, all with the same goal: taking the best care of their airframes as they possibly can.
Full disclosure: we don’t make money off of Swift. We keep the price low in trade for getting people to town and spending their money there. So I’m not cheerleading Swift because it profits us financially. Our pilots report great things, and I’m simply passing that along to answer your question.
-Brad Stanford
Volunteer Airport Manager
Dublin Municipal Airport (9F0)
Dublin, TX
Doing some math;
50 hours x 9 gph x [ $5.99 – $4.75 ] = $ 558 more for fuel.
An oil change is $ 55 , which I can do myself.
Does Lycoming and TCM approve of going 100 hrs on oil ?
The economics aren’t there for individual owners.
I’m not a pilot or A&P, so all I can give you is the feedback from my customers and others who have been using Swift.
It’s not just oil. It’s also plugs, less wear on pistons, etc. There is overall less wear on the engine. The question is not, “Does this save me money on fuel?” The question is, “Does it save money, time, and increase safety over 100LL over the long haul?” The anecdotal feedback I have is yes. I will have to leave the scientific conclusion to that question in Swifts hands, or some other group that has the resources and the know-how to do the research.
We’re selling it at $4.10 a gallon at 9F0. If you’re really trying to save money, move to Texas and fly from 9F0. Those two actions will save you more money than anything you could do in CA. ;^)
Better yet, see about selling this fuel at some northern California airports.!
If it’s less costly than 100LL, we’ll all use it…those of us with low compression, non-turbo engines.
[ Dublin, TX is more rural than where I live.!]
An unleaded fuel will certainly cause an engine to run more cleanly and have less contamination of the oil.
Note that auto engines now last 200k miles, run 50k on plugs and 7k on the oil, vs in the ’70s, my engine was junk at 75k, plugs needed changing at 10k, and 3k on oil.
So, it’s obvious that aircraft engines will benefit from unleaded fuel, as long as the octane, vapor pressure and other parameters are met.