New rotax owner here!! Quick ethonal vs nonethonal questions

Aaron H

Aaron H

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Dec 18, 2017
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Aaron
Hi all,

Picked up my first plane, an eagle ea 100.
They only made a couple and went out of business.
Also called an ibis magic 700 in columbia.

I know the rotax doesn't like 100ll and nonethonal fuel is ideal.
poh says auto fuel up to 10% ethonal is fine.

I have access to non ethonal 91 octane at a gas station about .5 hr from the airport and the opposite way home from my house.

If the aircraft is set up to handle ethonal, should I save the buck a gallon and time and just use the ethonal fuel?

My other issue with the non ethonal fuel is that I don't know how often it's refilled, but the cashier said they go through alot of it and i know the octane degrades faster in the ethonal stuff.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!
 
I burn what I assume to be E-10 all the time. No problems.
One potential issue would be things like the fuel tanks and fuel lines, but if the POH says E-10 is OK that's a good sign. But there have been some cases where composite fuel tanks have not turned out to be as ethanol resistant as the original manuf. thought they would be (Jabiru).
I wouldn't go an hour out of my way to get ethanol free gas unless I had a specific worry about the tanks.
 
Non-E has a much longer shelf life and won't clog your carb over time or hang onto water that may get into your fuel system. Vapor lock is also a greater concern.
 
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If your not flying often,the non E is a better choice,longer shelf life.
 
Aaron H said:
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
If you don't plan to fly a lot, take the ethanol challenge. Place a equal portion of ethanol gas and non-ethanol gas in separate mason jars. With lids off put on a shelf in a shed or someplace similar. Go back a week later and see which you prefer sitting in your airplane fuel tank.

Another neat trick to determine if gasoline has ethanol in it, is to fill a mason jar half-full with the gas. Mark the gas level with a sharpie. Add some water at a 10 part fuel to 1 part water ratio. Shake not stir the jar. Let it settle out. Then see if the "gas" level is above the sharpie mark. With non-ethanol gasoline, the gas level will remain the same. With ethanol gas the "gas" level will be above the sharpie mark as some of the water will have combined with the ethanol in solution.

If you use up the E10 in a months flight time you probably won't have a problem.
 
Thanks all for the reply.

If fuel line are safe for ethanol, would they still last longer with non ethanol fuel?

Bell,
What's the fuel look like after a week?
 
Ive been using 91 octane, non ethanol fuel here in NY from a local Stewarts. Unfortunately, its not a dedicated pump, so I start out putting a few gallons or topping off my truck to purge any lower octane fuel from the pump, then fill my cans. Been doing this since July without a problem. My plane is and its 912 are new, so it has the seals that are supposedly enthanol compliant, however, as others have stated, why take a chance, if you can get non ethanol use it. It’s better in the long run, IMHO.
 
Thx again fir the input.

I will use non ethonal, even though it might non be ideal with my location.

I bought an awesome gas can so at least fueling isn't hard. https://www.surecanusa.com
Check it out, I put the can on the main spare, lower the nossle into tank, and press the button....presto!

One more question.

My egt is almost at reline for take off.
Is this normal?
Once I lower the nose, it's right in middle of green
 
My ride often sits for a month or two. No big deal. (Other than the fact that I don't fly it nearly enough)

If you have ethanol tolerant fuel lines, they will last for years - just like the ones in your car.
 
Leave the corn on the cobb.
 
[QUOTE="Aaron H...

One more question.

My egt is almost at reline for take off.
Is this normal?
Once I lower the nose, it's right in middle of green[/QUOTE]
The actual number for EGT is of little significance (unlike cylinder head temp). Egt relevance is when it peaks for leaning purposes. The number is highly variable due to lack of comformity with its exact placement in the exhaust stream from cylinder to cylinder. Many EGT gauges don't even have numeric markings.
 
use anything that works in your snowmobile
 
Witmo said:
[QUOTE="Aaron H...

One more question.

My egt is almost at reline for take off.
Is this normal?
Once I lower the nose, it's right in middle of green
Click to expand...
The actual number for EGT is of little significance (unlike cylinder head temp). Egt relevance is when it peaks for leaning purposes. The number is highly variable due to lack of comformity with its exact placement in the exhaust stream from cylinder to cylinder. Many EGT gauges don't even have numeric markings.[/QUOTE]

Thx witmo,
(Fyi, im a newer pilot) I just want to make sure I understand.
Don't bother looking at egt for takeoff and pay more attention to cht.
If cht is high then consider lowering the nose earler
 
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Palmpilot said:
I rented a Rotax-powered airplane for a while, and the owner was putting ethanol-containing mogas in it. I found that it complicated the issue of getting water out of the gas, partly because the amount of water that stays dissolved changes with temperature. Some additional details here:

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/com...ethanol-free-mogas.115202/page-2#post-2645801
Click to expand...
I would think that for the small amount of water generally encountered it wouldn't be an issue (unless the fuel came pre-hydrated!) Saying that, the only emergency I ever had was when a bunch of melt water stopped the engine in the C-150 I was flying.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
I would think that for the small amount of water generally encountered it wouldn't be an issue (unless the fuel came pre-hydrated!) Saying that, the only emergency I ever had was when a bunch of melt water stopped the engine in the C-150 I was flying.
Click to expand...
I don't know why we were seeing so much water in the plane that I as flying. On one occasion, it was enough to prevent the engine starting.
 
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