WEIGHING IN ON UNLEADED AVGAS
After reading your commentary on unleaded avgas in the April 2023 Aviation Consumer, I can only say, as we did in the sixties, “right on!” It’s hard to even tell who’s on our side in this fiasco. I recently read Mark Baker’s editorial in AOPA’s magazine to the effect that it was a great thing that GAMI now had an STC for their unleaded fuel, and that others were working toward the same. He hoped to see more STC approvals so competition would bring down prices.
I sent an email to AOPA begging to differ. As I pointed out, in a nutshell, if there were multiple fuels with STCs, only large airports with multiple FBOs would give you a choice. Otherwise, finding an airport with fuel matching your STC would complicate your flight planning. Unless, of course, you bought multiple STCs. The reply I received did not justify his opinion. Doing this by STC only seems to kick this can further down the road and maintain the current snafu indefinitely until the EPA bans all leaded fuel and those of us who require 100 octane have to stop flying.