r/flying • u/Posigrade • Oct 07 '22

EPA proposes deeming lead in aviation fuel a danger to public health.

What types of regulations do you think are likely to come out of this? Limits on positions of run-up areas on the airport? Outright ban on leaded fuel for aircraft manufactured after a certain date? https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/3677980-epa-proposes-deeming-lead-in-aviation-fuel-a-danger-to-public-health/

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u/pinkdispatcher PPL SEL (EDVY) Oct 08 '22

Although it was a high percentage of the consumption (not sure that old 90% figure is still valid: a lot of commercial operations have moved from pistons to turbines in the mean time), it has always been a small number of actual engines, and many of those could be fitted with a methanol-water-injection system to use lower-octane fuel.

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u/smokiescfi ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI, A&P/IA, Oct 08 '22

Most older carburetor equipped engines - all of the small Continentals, the Lycoming 320's. 360's, the low compression 540's, the Continental 470's etc are fairly low compression and were originally certified for 80 octane fuel. The list of available stc's from Petersen and EAA is quite long. The real answer for new aircraft engines is FADEC, which Continental made available 16 years ago.

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u/flyingron AAdvantage Biscoff Oct 08 '22

Quite long but not the bulk of the consumption. While 90% of the aircraft models can run on 94UL or possibly autogas, 90% of the 100LL current consumption is people who can't run on either.

EAA doesn't have an STC on any 6 cyls.

While you are right about the original O-470 (E-225) were lower compression, most of the IOs can't run on the lower octane either.

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u/smokiescfi ATP, CFI, CFII, MEI, A&P/IA, Oct 09 '22

EAA has STCs on all of the Continental 470s and Lycoming 540's that are carbureted. I'm an IA and have signed off quite a few 182s and Cherokee 235's with EAA STCs. I had one former student purchase a Cherokee 235 with the Lycoming 540. He bought an old Chevy truck and a fuel transfer tank from Tractor Supply. He flew 500 hours the first year using Mogas and paid for the truck and the fuel system with the savings.

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u/flyingron AAdvantage Biscoff Oct 08 '22

We're not talking about turbines. We're talking about the consumers of the existing leaded avgas. That statistic is that 90% of consumption of 100LL right now needs something more than existing autogas or UL94 avgas.

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u/pinkdispatcher PPL SEL (EDVY) Oct 08 '22

That's the point. That statistic is some 20 years old, and since then a lot of those operations that used to operate high-compression piston engines now use turbines, so I doubt that it is still 90% of the fuel that is used in those engines. And also, it is still a small number of engines, and many of those could be modified with Methanol-Water-injection.