I've found that the pain of buying fuel, in this case 300 gallons of E-0 premium mo gas, at $3.13 per gallon, is eased when I only pull out my wallet once. Then, for the next several months when I re-fuel at home, it's "free"! I can use and really only need regular mogas at my field elevation and with my low comp Zipper engine mod, but the only bulk E-0 local is the high octane stuff. I suppose there is something to be said for the colder winter temps in effect lowering my field elevation, and the several months storage before I use all this fuel possibly bringing about some octane degradation, making the premium worth it. But it does cost me 31 cents more a gallon, so an additional 93 bucks for questionable worth, but oh well. I don't mind burning E-10, and often do when out and about, but not for my home bulk tank, I still want straight gas for that.

While I was in the truck cab waiting for the tank to fill (about half an hour), I was surprised by a guy knocking on the window, for some reason I immediately thought the tank was over flowing or I was on fire, but it was just a guy wanting to quiz me on my fat ebike which I happened to have onboard that day, phew....

I did just have an electrical meltdown while flying recently:smoke and burning wire insulation odor, turns out it went away before I could land, and was traced to my Sirius sat power supply. Plugged into a 12 VDC receptacle, it has a built in converter to reduce down to 5 VDC, and it somehow over heated, while not blowing the fuse, as it was on a common supply line with a couple other devices, and I fused for the total amp draw, my bad. A 10 amp fuse, and the Sirius wire was 20 gauge or smaller, so it self destructed without tripping. There was no real danger but I didn't like it and now have it fused like I should have. This is why we call them experimental.

Free gas! With math like that I bet you went to public school like me.

The same technique works beer also.

I've got 39-gallon tanks in my 7ECA, which burns about 4.5 gph when I just bumming around the local area or doing pattern work. I fill it up once, they use the fuel flow and sight gauge to keep track of the fuel state as I fly several flights. Usually get 7+ hours before I hit my personal minimum fuel (1 hour's worth remaining after landing).

And for all those short flights in between fill-ups, the gas is "free" for me, as well...

Now let's not talk about the actual costs, including hangar rent, insurance, oil changes, and annual inspection...

Well, you gave me enough of a clue, I found the Maverik at exit 69 Center St. Ha Ha!!!!

Wow, $3.13 per gallon and you guys complain!

Come on over to NZ, 100LL is currently $9.78 per gallon and 91 unleaded is around $8.15 per gallon. The minister for fun and finance gets grumpy when I pump $1,500 into the aerostar...

But on the plus side, our planes, cars and houses are far more expensive, and our wages are much lower than USA

Maverick premium E0 is 88 octane. It’s just their 91 E10 but without the ethanol which is used to raise the octane. Many, ie most, of the stations around here say they have 91 E0 but its actually 88. Maverick does accurately label theirs 88. I suppose it is a good thing you run a low compression zipper. The one station I but my 91 E0 has to get it from Bozeman. I used to snowmachine with the station owner and we had a interesting chat about it.

I've used too much off brand/any brand regular mo gas (and reached the 2000 hour TBO with zero issues) to worry much about the actual octane rating, you have that right Whee. It'd of course be a different story if I had the high compression ratio Zipper mod. But heck, just today, I was climbing out at 1400 to 1600 at 7 K, at less then full throttle. I lucked out on the low comp Zipper mod, combined with the 78" Prince prop, the torque band is wide, and fortuitously aligned with what the prop can do. All I know is I can almost always gently pull back on the stick a hair, and see a few hundred feet of climb, sustained, without the engine bogging down and without adding any throttle, almost like I have a constant speed prop. Point being, I have more then adequate power with the low comp mod, and happily avoid the need for "hi-test" (to use an outdated term), and for sure save a few bucks also.

180 Marty: I buy my oil filters by the case, and oil by the multi case lot, again, cutting down on any chance of fully realizing what it actually costs me to fly. I prefer to simply divide what I make an hour running my small crane, (ignoring it's maintenance expenses also) into the plane's fuel cost per hour, and ignore all those pesky incidentals you mention. This way, flying is so inexpensive I can't believe more don't do it

onefitty: Other then that, how do you like NZ?! Yeah, we have cheap gas here, I for sure realize that.