Posted for "Walter Dodson" <wdodson@bak.rr.com>:


Jack,   Thanks for your timely remarks on hi octane fuel which we so dearly need
to make our Lancair rocket ships work up to thier full potential.  I had
just gratuated from Northrop as a BSAME and was working for Jack Conroy
building the CL-44 pressurized Guppie (a turbine) when purple fuel,
115-145 octane, became unavailable.  We had been fueling the corn cob
powered guppies from a tanker driven up to Santa Barbara from the
refinery in LA.  The fuel was then transfered into a Santa Barbara
Aviation bowser for metering and pricing.  That didn't last very long,
tho, and soon the Guppies, the Onmark A-26 and the Howard 500 had to
reduce their TO manifold to some low value which basically ruined their
performance.  Well, long story short, the Lear, DeHaviland and Jet Stars
soon took over the bisiness market segment.  We don't have a similar
option as owner builders with so much invested in our projects.  We need
a way out.  TCM is not giving up much info that will reassure us.  I
wish I knew what they know.  The most recent AOPA journal has a good
article on fuels but offers no solution.  The new 91-96 octane fuel
offered in the former Soviet union is no help nor would it help us
should it be produced here here in the west.  Apparently the AGE 85 fuel
is not as great as I once hoped it would be.  George Braley's Prism
Ignition System may be an answer, expensive as it is sure to be.  Hi
test alkylate distillates are only a dream, in my view, given refinery
and base stock limitations.  Other additives are lacking performance.
TEL is the best/worst and we're stuck with it for now.  Wouldn't it be
nice to find a solution to this vexing problem which will soon overtake us?
   
Thanks,
Walter [ marv is gone for a few days and didn't
 approve posts, that's why LML has been slow.

 Deakin posted something on 100LL  http://www.avweb.com/articles/pelperch/pelp0055.html
 but I sure don't like how Aerosance was portrayed.          -Rob ]