Originally Posted by
mmorrison123
Great info guys. I'm just trying to fully understand the issues. All I have to go by is my personal experience and what I can find in the media. My 180 hours flying in the past 4 years comes very close to the 50 hour per year that was mentioned as an average for airplanes. 95% of that was using car gas with ethanol (10 or more percent, I'm not sure). I use the same fuel in my mowers, snowblower, power washer, and weedeaters, all of which have open-vented fuel systems. I never drain the tanks or use Stabil during the off seasons. And I'm not aware of a single issue that I'm experiencing due to ethanol phase separation or damage to fuel system components. Again, I'm not saying that it isn't occurring, just that if it is, I can't see any indication.
I think that the simple solution of getting mogas delivered to all our local airports might be a little more difficult than stated. Wouldn't the airport need some type of approved fuel tank and delivery system, separate and in addition to what they already have for avgas. I know when one local airport installed such a system for avgas it was very expensive. Since I'm the only one at my airport using mogas I doubt I could talk the owners into investing in this.
Again, this is all great info about what ethanol could do, but is this really what ethanol does? So far we have a Cessna, Kolb, and Phantom with fuel tanks made from unknown resin (was it epoxy, polyester, vinylester) that experienced terrible, sometimes immediate deterioration due to ethanol. What is different about their situation than mine, and are there others out there that are using ethanol blend with no apparent problems? Once again, just trying to educate myself.