While the entire general aviation industry supports, and is\nactively pushing toward, an unleaded fuel future, it is deeply concerned with a\nrash decision by Santa Clara (Calif.) County to ban the sale of 100LL as of\nJanuary 1, 2022. This move will leave piston-engine aircraft at the airports\nwith no fuel option approved for use in the entire piston GA fleet,\nsignificantly increasing the risk of aircraft misfuelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
National Air Transportation Association President and CEO\nTimothy Obitts stated, “NATA and its members are committed to finding an\nunleaded future for our industry and we are also committed to doing so safely.\nAllowing Santa Clara County to arbitrarily ban 100LL avgas sales sets a\ndangerous precedent that will pose risks and cause serious safety problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a letter to FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson, the\norganizations called on the FAA to use its \u201caviation safety mandate to prohibit\nindividual airports from interrupting the availability of 100LL and stifling\nthe cooperative industry-government effort to safely transition the entire\ngeneral aviation fleet to unleaded fuels. It is vital to public safety to\nmitigate [misfuelling] risks for pilots and passengers, and for the people and\nproperty on the ground during this transition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The FAA was reminded that engine failures from misfuelling\noften occur at critical phases of flight, such as on takeoff and climb out, and\nNTSB accident reports document the grim outcomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter pointed out that there are already misfuelling\nrisks where visually similar airframes require different types of fuel (e.g.\nCessna 421 and Cessna 441), and some popular piston aircraft models (e.g.\nBeechcraft Bonanzas) are fleets in which some aircraft have engines that can\nuse unleaded fuel and other aircraft do not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, piston aircraft with high-compression engines\nconsume 75 percent of the 100LL sold in the U.S.; many of these engines are not\napproved to use unleaded fuels currently available in the marketplace. Those\nthat are approved to use a lower-octane unleaded formulation must still obtain\na supplemental type certificate to legally use the fuel. This can create a\ndilemma and risk to pilots who land at an airport at which only a lower-octane\nfuel is available than what they require to safely fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The groups added, \u201cWe are committed to working with the FAA\nand industry stakeholders to effect a smart, managed nationwide transition to\nunleaded fuels in general aviation aircraft, one with safety at its core.\nUnlike automobiles, if an aircraft has engine trouble, it cannot simply pull\nover to the side of the road. The automobile industry took time to safely\ntransition to unleaded fuels and was successful, and the aviation industry must\ndo the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter was signed by leaders of the Aircraft Owners and\nPilots Association, Experimental Aircraft Association, National Business\nAviation Association, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, National Air\nTransportation Association, and Helicopter Association International.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the entire general aviation industry supports, and is actively pushing toward, an unleaded fuel future, it is deeply concerned with a rash decision by Santa Clara (Calif.) County to ban the sale of 100LL as of January 1, 2022. This move will leave piston-engine aircraft at the airports with no fuel option approved for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-district-of-columbia"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20399,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20398\/revisions\/20399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}