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Running PA38 on Mogas

Ha! Fair enough Mike…although I’m not Scottish, I’m Australian… And yes I spell litre the Sam as you…it’s just that my iPhone doesn’t! Normally I catch it, but not this time…So as I posted on another thread,we must forgive bad spelling etc for people using iPads and iPhones…. :-)

YPJT, United Arab Emirates

Does this imply Total operates pumps dedicated to aviation Mogas, presumably at (the smaller) aerodromes? Wouldn’t that be in direct competition to their own new Avgas 91 or what’s it called? Or has that project definitively been shelved?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

> (Just don’t insult the Socata TB20 on it’s performance and the parachute of the Cirrus SR20/22)

….and don’t mention tabbed browsing ;-)

On a more serious note: beware of alcohol in auto fuel. I once had an old Landcruiser which I bought from a guy in rural Spain. Great car, but – he had run the thing for a couple of years on biodiesel (widely available in the agricultural parts of Spain and cheaper than the normal one) and prob90 also on some red diesel. Upshot – ALL the fuel lines were effectively blocked, they had crumbled internally! Was not big deal, replacing the lot cost a couple of hundred EUR, thereafter the machine ran great or years. I just wouldn’t want this to happen in an airplane….

A couple of days ago a saw a ‘plastic’ aeroplane that had been using Mogas and it had been damaged by ‘melting’ both wings. So, the saving in fuel cost and safety to the owner were just not worth it.

Out of interest does anyone know what the impact of using Mogas would be on ‘bag’ tanks made by the Superflexit company. And as a supplementary does anyone know how to fix such a bag tank that is leaking, is there a treatment available?

jxk
EGHI, United Kingdom

>A couple of days ago a saw a ‘plastic’ aeroplane that had been using Mogas and it had been damaged by ‘melting’ both wings

Can you post the model?

Or, if not, was it CofA or non-CofA?

Presumably it had “wet wings”?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

> we must forgive bad spelling etc for people using iPads and iPhones…. :-)

Must we than also forgive airspace busts on pilots using triple GPS, RNAV and what not else…?

Cheese us, if technological progress serves as an excuse for poor communications I will consider quitting (technology, not communication). Or perhaps these iThings are not really exponents of technological progress??

((and yes yes, I did see the smiley. But you won’t acquit yourself that lightly!))

(((here again, nothing new under the sun: in the footnotes to Walter Scott’s excellent “The heart of Mid-Lothian”, one finds mention of a Scots lady concluding her letter with apologies for “poor spelling, as I have ane ill pen” – she may have been the then equivalent of today’s dumb blonde, blaming her own weakness to the available technology, but at least she was not beyond offering an apology )))

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

> saw a ‘plastic’ aeroplane that had been using Mogas and it had been damaged by ‘melting’ both wings

Would it have suffered less from spilling AvGas?

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium

“A couple of days ago a saw a ‘plastic’ aeroplane that had been using Mogas and it had been damaged by ‘melting’ both wings. So, the saving in fuel cost and safety to the owner were just not worth it.”

Our Cherokee has tip and main tanks. The tip tanks are fibreglass and it is not permitted to use MOGAS in them – which we quite happily use in the main tanks.

EHLE / Lelystad, Netherlands, Netherlands

How about mixing Avgas with Mogas? Would that maybe balance things out? (Such as octane level, vapor lock, lead, etc.)

> The tip tanks are fibreglass and it is not permitted to use MOGAS in them

That sounds like a missed opportunity from the airframebuilder – the fibreglass itself should never pose a problem, the choice of epoxy/polyester system does. Today, there certainly exist epoxy systems that can withstand mogas – my own craft’s fuel pump had its leak repaired with one such, and has been doing well for half a year since, though I keep an anxious eye on it – but perhaps this technology was not available at that time, or perhaps the issue was not considered relevant, or worth the cost/bother?

Sure enough, it was well done for the limitation to be duly published.

EBZH Kiewit, Belgium
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