Continental president gets the lead out en route to AirVenture
from AOPA Online's
Thomas B. Haines

(7/27/09) Teledyne Continental Motors President Rhett Ross seems single-handedly determined to showcase how committed his company is to getting the lead out of avgas. As a demonstration of that commitment, Ross flew a turbocharged Cirrus SR22 from the company headquarters in Mobile, Ala., to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis., at FL240 burning only UL94 avgas. UL94 is basically 100LL avgas without the lead component. With ASTM actively working the certification of UL94, TCM has shifted from testing the fuel to preparing its engines for its eventual introduction. Ross claims that bymid-2010, TCM will have equipped its entire product line of engines to run on unleaded fuel. Company pilot and engineer Keith Chatten accompanied Ross on the flight, the third extended flight for this standard production engine, which has now accumulated 20 hours on unleaded fuels. The flight followed an earlier test flight of 802 miles roundtrip from Mobile to Oshkosh conducted in two uninterrupted legs. “Today’s flight demonstrated that our standard factory turbo is ready for future fuels and has the fuel economy necessary to benefit our customers,” Ross said. “The engine was a joy to operate during this extended flight on UL94. With successful flights of both turbocharged and normally aspirated engines on unleaded fuels, we feel comfortable that TCM has solutions for the future and are now working to have them ready.”

Future fuels, airworthiness hot topics at AirVenture

(8/06/09) AOPA Staff- Talk about the future of leaded avgas, and you’ll have a captive audience of pilots. That was the case last week during an EAA-facilitated fuels panel discussion in Oshkosh, Wis. Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, General Aviation Manufacturers Association, FAA, and Coordinating Research Council spoke to a packed pavilion of 150 pilots. The panelists discussed the EPA’s recent call for information about the use of leaded avgas in general aviation aircraft. An EPA representative said that it is possible that an “endangerment” finding could be made. Pilots in the audience asked about a pending transition to an unleaded fuel and inquired about how quickly a transition might take place. In a meeting after the panel, AOPA met with other associations and industry representatives to discuss the move to unleaded fuel. AOPA and EAA are members of a coalition that GAMA formed to work on a plan for transitioning to an unleaded fuel. The groups will work with the EPA on a transition plan that impacts the industry as little as possible. AOPA also discussed another looming threat to the GA industry: maintaining an aging aircraft fleet. In meetings with EAA and the FAA’s Small Airplane Directorate, AOPA talked about educational outreach efforts to the pilot community. AOPA and the FAA had worked closely together to create a free online course, Aging Aircraft, that describes some best practices for caring for an older aircraft. “AOPA and EAA are able to better penetrate the pilot population with educational messages,” said Leisha Bell, AOPA director of aircraft and environmental issues. “These meetings with the FAA will help both of our organizations reach pilots with pertinent information they need to know to keep their aircraft airworthy.” Future collaborative meetings among the groups are planned for AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa, FL, Nov. 5 through 7.