Mark Wiley of Murfreesboro, Arkansas,who flies a 1963 Piper PA-28-235 Cherokee, contacted your bloggers some months back when his efforts to lower his costs lead him to mogas. Since then he has obtained a mogas STC from Petersen Aviation, installed a simple fuel system next to his hangar, and found a fuel supplier that brings […]
IEA report suggests lower fuel prices ahead
According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that the United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading producer of oil by 2020. Due in part to the remarkable yields enabled by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and directional drilling, technology developed since the 1940s, the […]
EPA policies slowing storm recovery
The northeastern region of the U.S. is one of the RFG (Reformulated Gas) Areas where the EPA dictates the use of an oxygenate in gasoline to lower carbon monoxide emissions. In the U.S., ethanol is the most common oxygenate, in addition to it raising a fuel’s AKI (Anti-Knock Index, commonly called octane) rating by about […]
Israel’s CAA endorses mogas
Evidence of the continued worldwide expansion in the use of lead-free, ethanol-free mogas in general aviation comes from this report from Israel. Haim Zaklad, a private pilot there, recently requested details on our study of the FAA’s aircraft registry showing that over 80% of all piston engine aircraft could operate today on lead-free, ethanol-free mogas. […]
BP gives up on cellulosic ethanol
In news that is sure to send shock waves throughout the ethanol industry and the EPA, one of the world’s largest oil companies is shelving plans to produce so-called cellulosic ethanol from non-food plants such as wood chips and switchgrass. As described in an article from the Wall Street Journal, “BP PLC Thursday said it […]
Commodities can lower the cost of flying
Commodities, by one definition, are “mass-produced unspecialized products.” Typical traded commodities include grain, coffee, sugar, pork bellies, feeder cattle, industrial and precious metals, natural gas and oil. They are produced worldwide in enormous quantities, resulting in most cases in far lower real costs than a century ago when limitations to transportation and political barriers to […]
9I0 and HLM add mogas
Pilots in the Midwest have received some good news amidst the rising cost of avgas in recent months. Both the Havana Regional Airport (9I0, Havana, Ill.) and the Park Township Airport (HLM, Holland, Mich.) started mogas sales in recent months. With avgas prices averaging over $6 a gallon across the country, pilots in the Holland […]
Fuel prices – How high will they go?
With vehicle fuel prices surging across the country, pilots are also feeling the pain at the airport pump, with the price for a gallon of avgas averaging more than $6 in every region, as reported by the website 100LL.com. According to statistics reported by AirNav.com, average prices for Jet-A remain about 50 cents lower, while […]
Self-service saves
Being well into the second half-century of my life, I vividly recall how, in 1973, the OPEC oil embargo, knee-jerk government-imposed price controls and the subsequent shortage of gasoline wreaked havoc on our nation’s economy. On my 16th birthday of that year, Nov. 6, I soloed an airplane for the first time at the late, […]