Aircraft Field Experience with Automotive Gasoline in the United States
SourceThis paper briefly reviews the history behind the incentives for the use of automobile gasoline in small aircraft powered by engines rated for 80-octane fuel.
Data that forms the basis for this paper is from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records in Oklahoma City covering fuel-related accidents and incidents and also fuel-related service difficulty reports. Information is also summarized from a survey of users conducted by the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA).
In the years since the successful completion of the FAA Flight Test Certification Program for the use of automobile gasoline in certain aircraft, field experience has shown that unleaded automobile gasoline use results in fewer reports of accidents/incidents or service difficulties than the use of highly leaded 100LL avgas in these low-compression 80-octane engines.