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Leaded Avgas reducing flight safety?

Well my theory just took a bit of a dint as the compressions have just gone on one of the cylinders. It has 1900 hours TT with the last 1200TT being on UL91.

Not had any plug fouling in all of that time and the oil is much much cleaner.

I flew my mates 150 again last week. Its currently having a 50 hour check every 6 days and that has been the case now for the last couple of months.

There is about 1800 hours on the engine and the last 1300 have been on UL91.

Oil wise is always been run on aeroshell 15/50 and had about 5 hours before its next service was due.

I absolutely couldn't believe the colour of the oil. Whereas the 150s that we run on avgas by time their 50 is due the the oil is the colour or tar.

However with this aircraft the oil was still a translucent brown admittedly darker but a world away from our aircraft.

I would also add that I have flown this aircraft throughout its engine life. Including when it was initially run on Avgas and I am certain that the colour of the oil is vastly different when run on unleaded fuel.

benzene is often up to 1% or 1.5%.

Benzene is now limited to 0.61% in the US isn't it?

Regarding unleaded solder... Who cares if the joints don't look as good as lead-solder joints? Reliability is important, but my understanding was that the aviation exemption was more about the incompatibility of old leaded components and new unleaded solder. You don't get reliable results if you use leaded and unleaded solders or components so an outright ban would have created havoc.

Again, thinking back to my childhood exposure to lead from disassembling electronics I'm glad I don't have to handle the stuff any more, and that my son won't either.

How about installing a dumping valve in your TB20?

LSZK, Switzerland

Just paid £80 for a 0.5kg reel of Japanese silver/copper/tin solder - must be a world record.

Some EU politician must have bought a lot of shares in a silver mine

It is good stuff though - really works.

So, when we get 100UL at €4/litre we can have a fly-in to celebrate our green credentials.

Where shall we go? To make it truly authentic one needs to burn a lot of fuel to get there, so how about Finland, or Crete?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

but until there is a "100UL" which works in the turbocharged fleet

G100UL doesn't? It seems to me it's more about politics than chemistry why G100UL hasn't been approved

LSZK, Switzerland

The tin whisker issue seems to have gone quiet.

Originally, Swatch threatened to close their watch business but evidently they found a way

I don't know if some new composition has been found (SMT reflow soldering doesn't normally use silver loaded solder - I was at the contractor this morning and inspected some of the work) or if everybody prefers to not advertise that due to EU regs their products will stop working after X years (which would be awfully bad PR even if it is true - nobody is going to do a Gerald Ratner).

I think the industry has probably sidestepped the whisker issue by dropping the trend to ever finer pin spacings (TSOPs were heading for ~0.4mm pitch) and moving to BGA packages whose ball spacing is fairly generous.

I agree the cost per PCB is not significant. But we still find it doesn't flow, on large items like brass bush PCB supports. The result is "OK-ish" but looks crap.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

For hand soldering, the only solder which works at all costs 10x more (£42/0.5kg v. £4) because it contains silver. We tested about 30 solders...

I went through a complete 0.5kg reel of lead free/silver free solder and while I could make it work it wasn't what I call "fun" although I did manage to make it work. I've started using the £42 reels with silver in them now, and I can happily hand solder fine pitch SMD with it all day long.

Am I particularly upset about the price? No, not really. I'd prefer if it were £4, but the cost of the solder used on any particular board is still pennies. What I care about more is not the cost of a reel of solder, but the tin whiskers issue in consumer gear. In going to lead-free solder it may just mean more consumer items break down and get thrown away leading to the unintended consequences of ROHS making things worse for the environment, not better.

Andreas IOM

The GA industry has been on notice since the late 80's/early 90's

True, but not on what most in the business would call "credible notice".

The so-called tree-huggers run so many bandwagons concurrently, with many of them totally emotive and discredited crap, that if one took notice of everything we would all live off our little vegetable patches, ride horses, and get power from little wind turbines.

Then they would complain about the smoke from the wood fires

Something will happen, with the USA leading the way, but until there is a "100UL" which works in the turbocharged fleet, we don't have a solution at all - irrespective of what the "I am allright Jack" community says.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I wouldn't want to see lots of old airframes condemned en-masse for both environmental and sentimental reasons, which might happen if someone pulled the plug on 100LL too precipitously.

Well, it's hardly what you could call precipitously. The GA industry has been on notice since the late 80's/early 90's to find an alternative to leaded avgas, and were given a conditional exemption from the leaded fuel bans enacted at the time. SInce then, GA has basically taken the p*ss and ignored the issue, presumably hoping it will go away. In this increasingly environmentally sensitive world, I am certain there will come a time when the powers that be will lose patience, and if a precipitous ban is imposed, sadly I don't think GA will deserve any sympathy.

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