Rabbit Aviation Services at San Carlos airport has completed a planned upgrade to its aviation fuel tank facility and will be the first airport with a fully-dedicated unleaded avgas storage system in California to sell unleaded UL94 aviation gasoline, supplied by US aviation fuel company Swift Fuels, for its piston aircraft customers. Pilots can expect to resume purchasing UL94 unleaded avgas from 15 September, 2019.

The nationwide transition away from leaded 100LL avgas to unleaded aviation gasoline continues to increase momentum for Swift Fuels, which produces and sells the only commercially available unleaded avgas in the US.

“Nobody likes lead, neither your engine nor the environment,” says Rabbit Aviation Services CEO Dan DeMeo. “General aviation needs a piston fuel for the future, and that future doesn't include toxic lead, so why not begin the transition with the highest-quality unleaded fuel? Working with our airport management and our elected county supervisors, we drafted the first agreement to supply a lead-free avgas alternative in the state. We hope this is the first of many such agreements to ensure general aviation has a piston fuel for the future. Swift's UL94 solves the issues brought by tetraethyllead and ethylene dibromide by radically lowering toxicity and engine corrosion, eliminating lead-fouled sparkplugs, and doubling the oil change intervals versus those required for 100LL. Our pilots and our community see a large positive benefit to using UL94.”

Swift Fuels CEO Chris D'Acosta adds: “Swift Fuels' UL94 is the only commercially-available unleaded avgas in the US, it's sold nationwide, it's commercially insured for aviation, and pilots who use it love it. Dan DeMeo has been a champion of this effort working with many local community leaders to join the progressive nationwide movement toward unleaded avgas. In fact, similar news on fuel expansions is expected soon in Texas and Florida.”

He adds: “We're proud to continue to lead this multi-year initiative since 2015, to educate the market on the key benefits of unleaded avgas. This can only happen with the ongoing support of forward-thinking regulators, aircraft and engine OEMs, pilots, airports, municipalities, airport boards and supply chain folks. Industry leaders like Dan DeMeo recognise the growing demand for cleaner fuel for their customers and continue to play an integral role in the transition. We recognised early on that pilots would value the longer maintenance intervals, less wear-and-tear on engines, less corrosion and longer sparkplug life. We are extremely proud to have our UL94 avgas available for piston aircraft use at San Carlos airport.”

Swift Fuels' unleaded UL94 avgas is sold nationwide, is priced competitively with 100LL and is expected to remain low subject to oil market volatility. Over 110,000 aircraft are already FAA-authorised to use the UL94 avgas as a 'drop-in ready' fuel. Note that UL94 is not a full replacement for 100LL, therefore only those aircraft with engines/airframes requiring 94 motor-octane fuels or lower are compatible, and this represents 65 per cent of the US piston fleet.