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From: "Mike Wills" <rv-4mike@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
References: <list-3078820@logan.com>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: Ethanol production
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:11:02 -0700
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Dale,

 Off topic - we are sort of in the same neighborhood. Although I currently 
live in San Diego I have property at Mogollon Airpark in Overgaard. Hope to 
retire and permanently relocate up there in about 4 years.

There's an outside chance that I could get the RV-4 to the Copperstate 
fly-in if my DAR will hustle up and do my airworthiness inspection (and I 
dont have significant issues flying off my 40 hours).

Mike Wills

RV-4 N144MW
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dale Rogers" <dale.r@cox.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 5:36 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Ethanol production


> It was serious in that I currently drive about 25K miles per year, 
> significantly down from the 48K that I was doing from 1980 through 2005. 
> Most of it, since 1995, has been in central Arizona (~100 mile radius of 
> Phoenix), but I have regular occasion to service accounts further out, 
> like Bullhead City, Showlow, and Thatcher; plus I back up engineers in 
> Tucson and Las Vegas, NV.  Highway 17 (between Phoenix and Flagstaff) sees 
> about half a dozen car fires a year.  The Phoenix area has seen at least 
> two in the last eight weeks, one blocking I-10 this morning.
>
> Yes, I've seen far more car fires in Arizona in 13 years than I did in the 
> previous 29 years in California, where, much of the time, I was driving 
> more than twice as much.
>
> Dale R.
>
> Mike Wills wrote:
>> Not sure just how serious you were with that comment. To answer your 
>> question, over the past several years I can recall seeing a grand total 
>> of one car fire on the side of the road. I live in southern Cal and drive 
>> about 20K miles/year. Given the number of cars I've seen on the road over 
>> the past few years (probably hundreds of thousands if not millions) 
>> versus the number of car fires I've seen (1) I like my statistical odds 
>> in this unscientific analysis even if that one fire was related to 
>> ethanol use (which obviously is not at all clear).
>>
>> Your own personal anecdotal fuel system issues while scary, have no 
>> proven linkage to ethanol in the fuel used. Could simply be another 
>> example of shoddy workmanship, poor engineering, or any of a thousand 
>> things. Too bad you couldnt recover the defective parts to come up with a 
>> definitive explanation.
>>
>> Given the on the edge nature of the average rotary engine aircraft 
>> installation, the small statistical base, and the relatively large number 
>> of issues and teething troubles we see during early taxi and flight 
>> testing, I think there are far more significant things to worry about 
>> than ethanol in the fuel.
>>
>> What I'd really like to see is some of the higher time guys (Tracy, Dave 
>> Leonard, etc...) who routinely burn Mogas tells us what their experience 
>> has been.
>>
>> Mike Wills
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dale Rogers" <dale.r@cox.net>
>> To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
>> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 11:07 AM
>> Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Ethanol production
>>
>>
>>> Mike Wills wrote:
>>>> I dont recall seeing scores of cars pulled over on the shoulder of the 
>>>> road with failures directly attributable to ethanol use.
>>>
>>> You haven't?  I don't understand how you've missed them - the columns of 
>>> black smoke should have pointed straight to them.
>>>
>>> Maybe you only drive at night?  |;)
>>>
>>> Okay, there was a bit of hyperbole there, but I can't help but wonder if 
>>> the increased numbers of on-the-road car fires I'm seeing as I cruise 
>>> the freeways of AZ and NV isn't due, in part, to alcohol.
>
>
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