Jr.CubBuilder wrote

The amount of energy released by burning more ethanol fuel with a given amount of air can surpass anything you can get from gasoline but.............................you're burning way more fuel! Not so good for airplanes.

That's why the Stc for AGE85 goes with the O 470 U instead of the A,J,K,L,R,S. It has 8.6 to 1 compression instead of 7. When they put 10 to 1 helicopter pistons in a Mooney instead of 8.5 they got 10% more power on the same fuel flow= pull the throttle back for more similar economy.

Yesterdays latest.

And my last post on the matter.

Ethanol, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush's plan to wean the U.S. from oil, is 2007's worst energy investment. The corn-based fuel tumbled 57 percent from last year's record of $4.33 a gallon and drove crop prices to a 10-year high. Production in the U.S. tripled after Morgan Stanley, hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla helped finance a building boom. Even worse for investors and the Bush administration, energy experts contend ethanol isn't reducing oil demand. Scientists at Cornell University say making the fuel uses more energy than it creates, while the National Research Council warns ethanol production threatens scarce water supplies. As oil nears $100 a barrel, ethanol markets are so depressed that distilleries are shutting from Iowa to Germany. An investor who put $10 million into ethanol on Dec. 31 now has $7.5 million, a loss of 25 percent. Florida and Georgia have banned sales during the summer, when the fuel may evaporate and create smog. "I don't anticipate any sort of immediate rebound," says Barry Frazier, the 50-year-old president of Center Ethanol LLC in suburban St. Louis. "It's going to take 12 to 24 months before the market is able to absorb the large amount of new capacity." The biggest producer, Archer Daniels Midland Co., may resort to exporting ethanol. Pacific Ethanol Inc., backed by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, dropped 63 percent in New York trading this year as profits collapsed. Record oil prices, which make blending of ethanol with gasoline more profitable for refiners, haven't stemmed the declines.

(Bloomberg News, Nov. 19, 2007)

mr scout, I'll try and make this my last also. When it comes to user fee's for GA, all the info for airlines vs. GA is factual.

Scout,
your last post had so many things wrong it made my head spin.
wirsig.

mr scout wrote:There should be a revolt.

Oh, it's comin'. People are getting mad and won't stand for much more.

IMHO, ethanol (or is it methanol?), biodiesel, and electric cars are all feel-good solutions that don't really measure up in the real world. But they give the impression that something is being done about global warming (which I'm not convinced is a problem or even really happening) and other environmental crisises (crisee?). As recently as 15 years ago, wasn't the imminent ice age all the rage with the end-of-the-world types?
Over-population is the root of most of our world problems, but nobody wants to address this except in what we consider to be third world countries. A good start at home would be to eliminate tax exemptions for each kid, change them to a tax penalty. China's "one couple, one child" policy isn't all that bad an idea, just needs to be voluntary- not implemented at gunpoint.

Eric

I am trying to figure out why all the folks from the corn procucing states are all on the same side (wink)

Thinking about a cross country trip from Nor cal to east coast. Like to stop in the corn states just to say high. Anybody got a grass strip.

Tim

Anybody got a grass strip.

Yes http://www.popularaviation.com/PhotoGallery/4308.JPG

Not exactly corn country, but we have wheat, durum, barley, sunflowers, dry beans, peas, lentils and flax as far as the eye can see. Oh ya, and now that they built an ethanol plant we grow corn for grain, not just silage. I guess that big chunk of concrete has changed the weather pattern to be more like the corn belt.

Bill

Tim, You're welcome to stop here and see me. We have a 120 ft wide grass with 28ft of asphalt down the middle.
http://www.airnav.com/airport/1Y9