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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 1818.PDF
BUSINESS AVIATION Shell decides not to supply mogas for aircraft LONDON Shell (UK) Oil has decided not to involve itself in the use of motor fuel for air craft. The company regards its Avgas 100LL product as the most appropriate for the majority of piston - engined aircraft requirements, and has written to its major cus tomers telling them of this policy decision. Existing and future suppli ers of Shell motor spirit will continue to meet the British Standard specification BS. 4040, which defines "four- star" fuel—mogas. But Shell says that its Mogas will not necessarily comply with the additional requirements of Civil Aviation Authority air worthiness notice AN 98. This recent document permits the use of mogas in certain de fined aircraft which use low- compression, unsupercharged engines. The manufacturer sees difficulties in producing fuel to the terms of AN 98, par ticularly to meet the require ments outlined in Schedule 2 of the document. This de fines acceptable spirit as "fuel meeting BS.4040: 1978 speci fication and with 40 per cent or less aromatics, 10 per cent or less olefines, no alcohol or other substitute fuels, and no additives other than those recognised for anti-oxidant and anti - knock purposes". I Shell points out that BS.4040 J is the spec for any four-star j fuel, and that the company produces at least three differ ent grades of four-star in the course of a year, depending upon season. It would "have trouble guaranteeing the de fine content of every gallon" that it sold. For the "small" quantities involved, Shell says that it would be quite uneconomic to introduce the necessary manufacturing, handling, and distribution controls to meet the terms of AN 98. Estima ting a total UK market for 30,000 tons of avgas annu ally—of which Shell claims to sell "a little bit over a half"—the company says that even if 10 per cent of that volume went over to mogas it would not be enough for the company to enter the market. Shell would regard such a venture as akin to producing a new fuel and says that it would be an ab solute "non-starter", in the terms of its own operations. The company handles 20 million tons of UK oil-pro duct sales each year. Addi tionally, the fuel would be subject, Shell says, to all the normal aviation-spirit quality controls. The supplier recognises that manuals for many older aircraft specified reputable motor spirit but suggests that such fuel, while prob ably less pure, was much better than today's in terms of thermal value. Shell sug gests that the earlier fuels might have been much closer to today's avgas spec. • Ultramar supplies the UK's present mogas fleet opera tors CSE Aviation and Farm Aviation, who respectively operate Piper Tomahawks and Archers for training, and Piper Pawnees for crop spray ing. The supplier is satisfied that its four-star fuel meets the requirements of AN 98, and arranges for an inde pendent sample of each batch delivered. Ultramar ad mits that more care is taken in delivering mogas to air fields than to garages, but the fuel itself is "straight" four-star with no special re fining. It is happy to supply mogas to "responsible users" who will follow the CAA conditions. Under the conditions of AN 98 (Schedule 2) a com pany may give prior warning of any intention to change significantly the constituents of the fuel supplied. Alterna tively, a sample from each delivery (or from the bulk storage from which the de livery is made) may be ana lysed. This analysis must be supplied to a person author ised by the CAA to accept such analysis. International Business Aviation Council grows SOUTH AFRICA Latest recruit to the Inter national Business Aviation Council is the Commercial Aviation Association o f Southern Africa business aviation division. Existing members include Germany's Bundesverbanid der Deuts- chen Industrie business air craft committee, the UK Business Aircraft Users' Association, the Business Aircraft Association o f Canada, and the Inter national Business Aircraft Association. This last-men tioned organisation is a regional member of IBAC representing Belgium, Den mark, France, the Nether lands, Sweden, and Switzer land. IBAC hopes to become recognised by the Inter national Civil Aviation Organisation as the sole rep resentative of business avia tion to that body. The organ isation identifies a number of areas where it hopes to improve existing circum stances : the awareness of business aviation's role in many national economies, the movement of aircraft be tween states, aircraft certifi cation, air legislation, safety and operational information exchange, legal status of air craft commanders, and the environmental and opera tional limitations on business aircraft. Gamta directory outlines British GA Ninety-four per cent of all British - registered civilian aircraft are involved in gen eral-aviation (GA) opera tions, says the UK General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association (Gamta) in its new director, General Aviation in Britain. Only 380 aircraft are registered to major airlines, against 6,358 involved in GA, says Gamta, which gives this breakdown: UK General Aviation Aircraft Scheduled services 85 Air taxis 350 Helicopters 558 Private & business 4,094 Flying club 493 Commercial training 190 Agricultural & aerial work 262 Stock aircraft* 326 TOTAL 6,358 "Held by manufacturers and I dealers. i A wealth of further numeri- i cal information is included. I There are more than 200 air- | fields in the UK, and more I than 2,000 in Europe. Of I these, fewer than 10 per cent are served by scheduled air lines of any sort. The UK has over 1O0 GA public - transport licensed operators, who carry 500,000 passengers a year on business flights. Countering "that popular myth", Gamta is at pains to point out that GA is not merely recreational flying. Leisure and sport operations account for less than 10 per cent of overall activity, while business flying represents 65 per cent of all hours flown each year. Flying training is put at 20 per cent and agricultural and other aerial work is said to consti tute six per cent of the GA flying. Fuel consumption is de tailed as 9,900,000 gallons avgas annually. Airline opera tions "in the UK" in 1980 are said to have consumed 1,299 million gallons of jet fuel. Road transport—busi ness and pleasure — accoun ted for 7,519 million gallons of motor and diesel fuel. Gamta says that GA con sumption was barely one per cent of all aviation con sumption, and that 97-5 per cent of this was burned in business operations. Recreational flying is said to have accounted for less than 5 per cent of the total aviation gasoline burned in Britain each year, consuming some 720,000gallons. Short finals ... Francis Pacquet is appointed a director of Jet Aviation, the Swiss-based maintenance, flight - operations, outfitting and consultancy service. Fixed-base operator A A R Oklahoma has opened a new hangar at Will Rogers World Airport, Oklahoma City. The 41,000ft2 storage and office space has been leased to A A R ' s corporate tenants. Some 125,000ft2 of hangar space is occupied by the FBO. Glos-Air has set up a base at Aberdeen's Dyce Airport. The new avionics facility will offer radio, radar, navi gation, autopilot, and GPWS equipment line servicing. There will be an office for Glos-Air (Charter). Contact Glos - Air (Aberdeen) at Room 12, Building 4, 12 Thistle Road, Aberdeen Air- p o r t, Scotland: telephone 0224 725724 or 722331 exten sion 5724. 12 FLIGHT International, 3 July 1982
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