If anyone buys the Ethanol-Free, 91 Octane Unleaded fuel from Golden Gate Petroleum for use in light aircraft, be advised that they may be pumping bad fuel. So bad that an engine will not run at all. I assume that one delivery truck serves multiple locations. https://ggpetroleum.com/locations/. I have met with the local manager, told him what happened and furnished photographs. I wrote an email and suggested they suspend sales until they can resolve the problem. I haven't heard back.
I say "may" and "possible" for now, until they confirm to me, but if you read my story below, you'll see that I spent most of yesterday investigating the situation and my friend and I have concluded that there is very bad fuel coming out of the pump at the store.
In my Rotax-powered Aerotrek A220, I've been running this Ethanol-Free, 91 octane unleaded fuel from the local Golden Gate Petroleum gas station/convenience store here in Gardnerville, Nevada. As Rotax operators are aware, 100LL is approved but lead deposits in the gearbox shortens the TBO, plus the other usual concerns about lead deposits in small, high-revving engines. Therefore this fuel seemed like an excellent alternative and it was available nearby.
Friday evening I filled four 5 gallon fuel cans, drove to my hangar at the Minden airport, and poured two of them into my 30 gallon, hand crank, portable fuel caddy, which was under half full. I then noticed that the Yamaha quad that I use primarily as an aircraft tug was low on fuel, so I topped it off then poured the rest of that third can into the fuel caddy and brought the last can home to keep with other cans for use on the ranch in mowers, woodsplitters, etc. I knew that the wind was going to kick up by mid-morning Saturday and I wanted to just fly the pattern and make a few landings, as I've been up at the lake flying the amphib and wanted to exercise the little taildragger and me in it.
Saturday morning I opened the hangar door and started the ATV so I could pull my amphib out to access the A220. The Yamaha started but then sputtered and quit. I repeated this cycle several times with varying amounts of choke and throttle. My hangar neighbor, who is a motorhead, tried too. We couldn't make it run at all. Not just rough. Wouldn't run at all. After a while we quit and while he offered to help pull and push my amphib (twice), I decided it was getting late and I didn't want to work that hard just for a few landings. (The 182 on Aerocet 3400's, which is in front of the A220, is pretty hard to push and pull by hand.)
As were discussing what could be wrong with this ATV that ran fine Friday morning, it donned on me that the only thing I had done to it was to add that fuel. I called the Golden Gate Store and asked if they had any reports of problems with the fuel and they said no. I told them what I suspected and said I would follow up. I went home to where I had left the remaining 5 gallon fuel can in my shop. I poured some of the suspect fuel into it and photographed it. I then found another existing can of the same product, tagged 5/2020, and poured some in the Gatts jar and took a picture. Here they are.
Sample 1. From the Friday evening purchase.
Sample 2. From the May 20th purchase.
I then defueled my walk-behind Toro 4 stroke lawn mower (which had run fine a couple days prior on the May fuel), re-fueled with the new gas. It wouldn't start at all.
I then drove to the Golden Gate store and purchased a couple of gallons from that same pump and took a sample and photo. For one thing, I wanted to refresh my memory and rule out that I had pumped from some other pump. Here it is.
Sample 3. From the Saturday purchase.
I went inside and met with the store manager, told him about my "investigation" and showed him the pictures. He asked me to email the photos to him, which I did. He said he'd report to his boss. I repeated that I was likely not the only small airplane owner/operator using this product and suggested they consider putting that pump out of service until the issue is resolved.
I then stopped at the Maverik gas station and bought about three gallons of regular 87 octane (contains ethanol) and drove back to my hangar and met up with my hangar buddy again. We siphoned all the fuel out of the ATV tank then poured the fresh Maverik fuel in. After cranking several seconds, it started, ran a little rough for a few seconds, the settle down and ran smoothly. He drove it around a bit to warm it up then verified that it idled smoothly.
Then we went to my Aerotrek A220 and siphoned some fuel out of the wing tank into a small mason jar.
Sample 4. From the Aerotrek wing tank. Purchase date unknown, but over three weeks ago.
So the fuel bought three to five weeks ago all has a pale yellow color and runs fine. The new fuel, purchased Friday and Saturday from the same pump as before, is colorless and won't run at all.
Had it not been for my topping the ATV off, I would have pulled out the A220, folded the wings out, fueled it from the portable caddy, fired up and taxied out. We know that the engine would have quit, but when and where is unknown and likely a function of the ratio of the existing good fuel and the new bad fuel. Just my luck it would have been just after rotation!
As a result, regardless of the results of further investigation into this incident, I've decided to quit running "street" fuel in my Rotax. I'll buy the more strictly controlled avgas 100LL, and just accept the shorter gearbox service interval. I used to run a Kitfox 80 HP Rotax on 100LL and it always ran fine. I didn't keep that plane long enough to overhaul the gearbox, but I stay in touch with the guy who bought it and he's still flying it.
If I learn more, I'll post about it.
Pierre
