A wise man once said, “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you have evidently not grasped the gravity of the situation.” When I first started working at Shell back in the late 1960s, we did a lot of work on octane requirements. Due to the poor correlation […]
Visser's Voice
The difference between 100LL and 100/130LL
In my last column, I proposed a way to get the lead out of 100LL — or at least out of the name. I received a number of responses, both pro and con. I always appreciate both types of comments and try to learn from them. I would like to address just one of the negative […]
What’s in a name?
We live in a rural community and I have been elected to the township board for the last few years. A couple of years ago, the board applied for a grant to replace all of the traffic signs in our township. We won the grant and received the new signs. A few weeks ago, I got a […]
Tips for cold weather engine starting
Now that cold weather is here, I get asked quite often, “How long should I warm up my engine before I drive/fly off?” As always, there is no simple answer. Part of the reason we warm up our vehicles is to get the heater going. But there are technical reasons to warm up our cars […]
Search for 100LL replacement raises many questions
When I started to write this post on unleaded avgas, I sat down to read about the upcoming evaluation program for four candidate fuels. The more I read the more questions it raised. For instance, why does Swift Fuels have two candidates? But the biggest question concerned the percentage of the piston aviation fleet that the new […]
Using physics to fuel safely
A few weeks ago I received an email with a cartoon of a mature lady sitting back with a glass of wine. The caption read, “Another perfect day, and I never had to use algebra once.” I smiled a little, but then got to thinking about how much we use math and science in our […]
Getting GA’s story out to the public
I am a creature of habit. I have been watching the national and local evening news on TV most every evening for more than 50 years. The local news informs me about the weather and other things, and the national news keeps me informed on some of the things that are going on in the […]
The story behind Aeroshell’s iconic cow poster
As many of you read this, you may be on your way to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, slated for July 28-Aug. 3. I hope to be there this year and may see some of you. I always enjoy Oshkosh, but one of my best memories is of the 1993 Aeroshell Speed Dash and the world-renowned […]
Grease is the word
Whenever I give talks I usually put in a few slides about grease. In discussions on this topic, questions mainly fall into three areas. The first is why is it so critical to use only the grease that is approved for a certain application. A lot of people think grease is grease, so they should […]