9 ms·

Congratulations to GAMI. They are a really interesting and innovative small company. Their calibrated fuel injectors are a great upgrade for many planes letting

Congratulations to GAMI. They are a really interesting and innovative small company. Their calibrated fuel injectors are a great upgrade for many planes letting you save 5-15% of fuel. They make an innovative turbo system for the Cessna Cardinal that is quite a challenge. But taking on the task of creating an unleaded avgas and shepherding it through an arduous approval process for literally decades.. Good for them. (GAMI is still independently owned, right? Sometimes it feels like the last American GA company that wasn't bought by a Chinese aviation company.)

davidwihl 4y ago
I took their in-person class in Ada, OK back in the day. Highly recommended the training material. https://www.advancedpilot.com/ https://www.advancedpilot.com/ They have a great test bed for validating their science.
- sokoloff 4y ago
  I took that same course (in Fall 2013 I think); it was excellent. Sadly, both John and Walter have passed away, leaving only George as the last amigo standing.
- IncRnd 4y ago
  When I read your comment too quickly, I saw Ada training. [1] Of course, you meant what you wrote, Ada, OK! [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) [2] https://adaok.com/ https://adaok.com/
greggsy 4y ago
I recall watching a YouTube video a little while back that went into the modern history of light aircraft engines, and how there have been several failed attempts at redesigning existing technology over the past 20 (40?) years. Is it genuinely workable? Or is there some weird edge case that makes it completely impractical from a maintenance or reliability perspective?
- sokoloff 4y ago
  There were several failures from converted ex-automotive engines. Some of those were related to vibration; others to the much higher percentage of power that an airplane engine runs for hours on end. My engine might last for only 2000 flight hours between overhauls. In those 2000 flight hours, it's likely to burn ~30K gallons of fuel. Taking that as a proxy for the total energy generated, 30K gallons of fuel will take a typical car almost a million miles. How many cars reach 1 million miles without major engine work? There were also a bunch of (IMO misguided) attempts to fit liquid cooled engines into aircraft. What do you have absolutely no shortage of in flight? Fast moving, cool air. What do you have no tolerance for in flight? Loss of coolant. It's not impossible to improve upon them, but aircraft engines have gotten to a local maximum of sorts where they're pretty darn good at what they do and the maintenance needs and failure modes are pretty well understood.
  - verelo 4y ago
    I’d agree with most of this but frankly when was the last time your car engine stopped on the highway? Or was hard to start because it was hot, or cold, or just because? These problems are solved in cars. The old Cessna 172 models I’ve flown all continue to have these issues, even a friends SR22 from the mid 2000s was a nightmare. Plane engines are well understood, but they are old and clumsy designs that could be drastically improved upon.
    - cush 4y ago
      I can't remember the last time I commuted and didn't see a car broken down on the side of the road.
      - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
        Not necessarily engine problems.
      - elmomle 4y ago
        But thousands of cars pass that way each day, and one breaks down. The (admittedly anecdotal) issue rate described for planes sounded much higher.
feb 4y ago
Impressive work by GAMI who are working on it since decades. AVWeb made 2 videos on the subject of leaded avgas and on how hard it is to get it approved. In addition, the FAA launched several failed attempts with the industry at large. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F-WngVMJBQ The Long, Twisted And Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 1 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvse4Xhzwuk The Long, Twisted And Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 2 When reading the announcement, it looks like some municipalities in California started banning the sale of leaded avgas and I suspect that helped to push the FAA to finally move in approving G1000UL. Not surprisingly, they will start providing it to the California market before the other states. In the announcement on avweb.com (https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/gami-unleaded-avgas-stcs-approved-for-ga-piston-fleet/ https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/gami-unleaded-avga...), they also credit Mark Baker from the AOAP to encourage the FAA to complete the project.

davidwihl 4y ago

I took their in-person class in Ada, OK back in the day. Highly recommended the training material. https://www.advancedpilot.com/ https://www.advancedpilot.com/ They have a great test bed for validating their science.

sokoloff 4y ago
I took that same course (in Fall 2013 I think); it was excellent. Sadly, both John and Walter have passed away, leaving only George as the last amigo standing.
IncRnd 4y ago
When I read your comment too quickly, I saw Ada training. [1] Of course, you meant what you wrote, Ada, OK! [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) [2] https://adaok.com/ https://adaok.com/

greggsy 4y ago

I recall watching a YouTube video a little while back that went into the modern history of light aircraft engines, and how there have been several failed attempts at redesigning existing technology over the past 20 (40?) years. Is it genuinely workable? Or is there some weird edge case that makes it completely impractical from a maintenance or reliability perspective?

sokoloff 4y ago
There were several failures from converted ex-automotive engines. Some of those were related to vibration; others to the much higher percentage of power that an airplane engine runs for hours on end. My engine might last for only 2000 flight hours between overhauls. In those 2000 flight hours, it's likely to burn ~30K gallons of fuel. Taking that as a proxy for the total energy generated, 30K gallons of fuel will take a typical car almost a million miles. How many cars reach 1 million miles without major engine work? There were also a bunch of (IMO misguided) attempts to fit liquid cooled engines into aircraft. What do you have absolutely no shortage of in flight? Fast moving, cool air. What do you have no tolerance for in flight? Loss of coolant. It's not impossible to improve upon them, but aircraft engines have gotten to a local maximum of sorts where they're pretty darn good at what they do and the maintenance needs and failure modes are pretty well understood.
- verelo 4y ago
  I’d agree with most of this but frankly when was the last time your car engine stopped on the highway? Or was hard to start because it was hot, or cold, or just because? These problems are solved in cars. The old Cessna 172 models I’ve flown all continue to have these issues, even a friends SR22 from the mid 2000s was a nightmare. Plane engines are well understood, but they are old and clumsy designs that could be drastically improved upon.
  - cush 4y ago
    I can't remember the last time I commuted and didn't see a car broken down on the side of the road.
    - TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
      Not necessarily engine problems.
    - elmomle 4y ago
      But thousands of cars pass that way each day, and one breaks down. The (admittedly anecdotal) issue rate described for planes sounded much higher.

feb 4y ago

Impressive work by GAMI who are working on it since decades. AVWeb made 2 videos on the subject of leaded avgas and on how hard it is to get it approved. In addition, the FAA launched several failed attempts with the industry at large. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F-WngVMJBQ The Long, Twisted And Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 1 * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvse4Xhzwuk The Long, Twisted And Slightly Ridiculous Story of Avgas Part 2 When reading the announcement, it looks like some municipalities in California started banning the sale of leaded avgas and I suspect that helped to push the FAA to finally move in approving G1000UL. Not surprisingly, they will start providing it to the California market before the other states. In the announcement on avweb.com (https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/gami-unleaded-avgas-stcs-approved-for-ga-piston-fleet/ https://www.avweb.com/ownership/fuel-news/gami-unleaded-avga...), they also credit Mark Baker from the AOAP to encourage the FAA to complete the project.