Saturday, November 2nd, was G100UL® Avgas STC Day at Reid-Hillview Airport!

Over 125 pilot/owners came to the lobby during the day and went through the process to get their STCs for the use of G100UL® Avgas.

The line still extended out the door at 4:30 pm.

There was a long line of early bird pilot/owners by 08:30 Saturday morning, patiently standing and waiting to get the I.A. to “Sign Off” their Form 337s and their aircraft and engine log book entries.

Outside the Reid Hillview Terminal, at 08:00, the refueling crew was getting ready for a very busy day!

The KRHV G100UL Avgas “refueler” was placarded and fully compliant with Industry Standards.

On the ramp, outside the KRHV Terminal, Bob Mackey, a KRHV-based A&P, volunteered to help install G100UL Avgas Placards, in accordance with the installation instructions.

G100UL Avgas Placards installed on a Cirrus SR-22, a Cessna C-340, the engine placard and an A36 Bonanza:

One of the half-dozen Cirrus Aircraft which refueled with G100UL Avgas during the KRHV “event”:

By mid-afternoon, the new arrivals kept the line of pilot-owners trailing out the door.

Above, an impromptu explanation of the greatly reduced oil analysis wear metal data from the 200 hour AOPA Baron demonstration program.

Inevitably, the social media pages came to life with reports of the STC field day at KRHV.

There was an enormous level of enthusiasm by the airplane owners.

The most common comment:

Thank you! Now I do not have to stop at other airports and tanker 100LL into Reid Hillview every time I fly my plane!

By end of day, November 2nd, 2024, over 125 STCs had been “installed” on the aircraft based at KRHV or otherwise based at nearby airports, and the airport refueler truck was empty, after having pumped and sold around 1,000 gallons of G100UL Avgas.

In addition, arrangements have been made to secure G100UL STCs for the fleet of ~75 training aircraft at Reid-Hillview’s flight schools.

When the “paperwork” is completed, there will be over 200 aircraft based at KRHV authorized to use G100UL Avgas.

Special Thanks and Recognition to Santa Clara County and its Director of Airports, Eric Peterson and Assistant Scott Riddle. (They made it “happen”!)

Pictured above: Eric Peterson, George Braly, & Alexter Ching at the end of a long & busy day at Reid Hillview Airport.

Eric is the director of airports for Santa Clara County. Alexter ran the fuel truck and filled the tanks of aircraft participating in the G100UL STC “field day” at KRHV.

G100UL® Avgas STC Application Submitted to FAA: December, 2009.
Approved for all Spark Ignition Piston Powered Engines and Airplanes: September 1, 2022.

FAA Managers and Engineers who were instrumental in the approval of G100UL Avgas:

1. Tony Broderick;
2. David Grizzle;
3. Fran Favara;
4. Fran Cox;
5. Jurgen Priester;
6. Dorenda Baker*;
7. Kevin Brane;
8. Mark Fulmer;
9. Peter White;
10. Earl Lawrence**;
11. Kevin Marks;
12. Jeff Janusz;
13. Paul Nguyen;
14. Gary Wechsler;
15. Lirio Liu***

*2011 & 2012
**2020
***2022, 2023, & 2024

July, 2020: Earl Lawrence, AIR-1, placed a telephone call to George Braly, at GAMI:

George, I have reviewed your project file and history. This project has taken at least five years too long… I am going to reassign the current team working on your project… and I am going to put a whole new team in charge.

August, 2020, Kevin Marks, Jeff Janusz, & Paul Nguyen, were assigned the G100UL Avgas project. 12 months later, the first (limited AML) STCs were issued. With timely and critical interventions by AIR-1, Lirio Liu, in June, July, & August, of 2022 - on September 1st, 2022, the FAA issued a fleet wide AML STC for all spark ignition piston engines and all of the airplanes which use those engines. GAMI is looking forward to working with the current team of FAA Managers and Engineers to implement a “Streamlined STC” process and complete the rotorcraft airframe approvals.

Data from AOPA Baron Demonstration:

This data demonstrates that wear metals in our engine oil will be reduced by ~ 40 to 60%!

Based on this data, it is likely, over time, that owners will benefit from the following:

1. Greatly increased oil change intervals. 100 to 150 hour oil change intervals;
2. Synthetic Motor Oils;
3. Due to the reduced wear rates of the critical components, it is also likely that TBO intervals can be substantially increased;
4. Cleaning spark plugs every hundred hours or every annual may be lost in our distant memories!

Credit goes to Mark Baker and AOPA for the vision to undertake the Baron demonstration project