Rochelle Municipal Airport-Koritz Field announced that it has finalized details with Swift Fuels, LLC, and has begun selling Swift’s unleaded UL94 aviation gasoline for its piston aircraft customers.
The nationwide transition to unleaded aviation gasoline continues to pick up momentum for Swift Fuels, which produces and sells the only commercially-available UNLEADED avgas in the United States. This announcement marks yet another milestone for Swift Fuels, with Rochelle Airport being the first airport in Illinois to join the campaign. Swift’s UL94 will be the only on-site unleaded aviation fuel distributed at Rochelle, which is approximately 80 miles west of Chicago and 25 miles south of Rockford.
Michael Hudetz, the Manager of Rochelle Airport, is extremely excited to begin selling Swift Fuels’ breakthrough unleaded fuel: “With a solid portion of the traffic at the airport being piston-engine aircraft, we were not only seeking a cleaner, more environmentally-friendly alternative to 100LL [low lead], we also needed a more resilient option than recreational autogas. With Swift Fuels’ UL94 being commercially-available nationwide, we recognized that we had an opportunity to offer our pilots the best unleaded option in the market today. Among its major benefits – UL94 eliminates lead-fouled sparkplugs, allows longer oil change maintenance intervals than 100LL, and UL94 avgas has a 10-15X longer shelf life than autogas. Also, since it has a low RVP year-round, we no longer must concern ourselves with seasonal vapor pressure fluctuations that can cause vapor lock in aircraft – so our pilots will love flying it year-round and come back for more. We’re extremely proud to be the first airport in Illinois to join the progressive nationwide movement toward unleaded avgas,” Hudetz said.
Swift Fuels CEO, Chris D’Acosta commented, “We continue to work with regulators, aircraft/engine OEMs, pilots, airports, municipalities, airport boards and supply chain folks as a part of a multi-year initiative to educate the market on the key benefits of unleaded avgas. The industry leaders like Mike Hudetz at Rochelle recognize the growing demand for cleaner fuel for their customers, and such forward-thinkers continue to play an integral role in the transition. We recognized early on that pilots would value the longer maintenance intervals, less wear-and-tear on engines, less corrosion, longer sparkplug life, etc. We are extremely proud to have our UL94 avgas available for piston aircraft use at Rochelle,” said D’Acosta.
Swift Fuel’s Unleaded UL94 Avgas is sold nationwide – priced competitively with 100LL and is expected to remain low subject to oil market volatility. Over 100,000 aircraft are already FAA-authorized to use the UL94 Avgas as a “drop-in ready” fuel. Note that UL94 is not a full replacement for 100LL, therefore, only those aircraft with engine / airframes requiring 94 motor-octane fuels or lower are compatible – which represents 65% of the US piston fleet. For more information about UL94 and the latest listing of airports with Swift Fuels UL94 available, please visit: www.swiftfuels.com
About Rochelle Municipal Airport-Koritz Field -Â See: http://www.airnav.com/airport/RPJ
