Fuel Prices and their Effect on Your Flying

I did some checking around my area today (thanks www.100ll.com) about
what the fuel prices are, and was surprised to learn that my home base
(KTYQ) is charging $4.47 (the highest in the area), and that includes
our based-on-the-field discount. That is up around $1.00 from a little
over a year ago and it has forced me into several revelations.

First I decided that we can get fuel elsewhere for much cheaper. Within
a 10 minute flight I found it $1.00 cheaper @ $3.47. To me that is worth
the drive... errrr... ahhhhh... flight to go somewhere else.

Second my partner and I decided to hike our per-hour costs from $75.00
and hour to $85.00 an hour wet as a sort of fuel-surcharge. If and when
the prices retreat (historically they have) we'll revisit the charges.
My theory is that it is better to have too much in the bank than too little.

Third I am now learning and practicing everything I can about Lean of
Peak (LOP) operations in order to save money on fuel. I have found that
in cruise I can save many gallons-per-hour by twisting the red knob
until the EGT's peak and then get to 10-20 degrees on the other side of
peak temperatures. I know that this will not work for everyone but for
my IO-360 it gives me a cool, smooth running engine that is only
drinking 9.5 GPH.

Have higher fuel prices forced you to adjust your operations? I'm sure
that over the years when fuel prices have peaked, folks have made
changes, but since I am a new owner (working on our second year) it is
my first experience at spiking prices. So what say you?

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

$3.47 for 100LL? That won't last very long before this batch of gas is
gone and they're taking in another load.

This is what I did this year to cope with the gas price:

* Get the autogas STC for my Grumman AA-5. For the first time ever I
was glad that I had a low compression engine :-)
* Fly at lower power setting for local flights.
* Lean like crazy on those low powered flights. It won't hurt the
engine.
* Fill up autogas whenever I can.
* Invest in engergy related mutual funds. Seriously. Those funds have
gained more than 50% since winter 2004 when I bought them. If I have
to pay more for gas I might as well get even by making money from the
oil companies.

Even autogas at AWO has gone up from $2.62 to $3.12 just in the last
month. I know for those among us that're limited to 100LL this sounds
like a steal!

BTW for the fellow autogas drivers out there, I wrote this planning map
http://www.chouby.com/apps/autogas.html as a public service. Use your
STC and patronize those airports!

: * Fly at lower power setting for local flights.
: * Lean like crazy on those low powered flights. It won't hurt the
: engine.
: * Fill up autogas whenever I can.

That's one of the biggest ways to save significantly on fuel. In particular
with a high-performance plane. Drag power (and thus fuel burn) goes with the *cube*
of the speed, and a plane with a big engine generally lets you climb that steep cubic
curve a pretty good ways. If you're willing to slow down a few knots (generally 5-10
is pretty significant), you can generally get a pretty big fuel savings.

My PA28-180 is neither high-performance nor has a big engine, but the airframe
is pretty much in the "sweet-spot" with a 150-160hp engine at 75%. More than that
means lots more fuel burn for very little speed gain. In my case:

75%: 10gph - 115-120KIAS (can't lean too much)
65%: 8.5gph - 110-115KIAS (can lean to whatever as long as CHT is OK)
55%: 7.5gph - 105-110KIAS (can lean 'till it wheezes out of the sky)

That's a increase from 12nmpg - 13.5nmpg - 14.5 nmpg... roughly 8% speed
penalty for 20% fuel savings. With a slippery plane with a big engine, even moreso.

Oh yeah... headwinds suck.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss, Ph.D., PPSEL-IA *
* Electrical Engineering *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:20:02 +0000, Jon Kraus wrote:

Third I am now learning and practicing everything I can about Lean of
Peak (LOP) operations in order to save money on fuel. I have found that
in cruise I can save many gallons-per-hour by twisting the red knob
until the EGT's peak and then get to 10-20 degrees on the other side of
peak temperatures. I know that this will not work for everyone but for
my IO-360 it gives me a cool, smooth running engine that is only
drinking 9.5 GPH.


When you say, "EGT's", I assume you mean an EGT per cylinder?

Greg

Yes per cylinder... but since you can not lean an individual cylinder
without affecting the others I always use the highest EGT as my base for
the leaning...

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

Greg Copeland wrote:
On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:20:02 +0000, Jon Kraus wrote:


Third I am now learning and practicing everything I can about Lean of
Peak (LOP) operations in order to save money on fuel. I have found that
in cruise I can save many gallons-per-hour by twisting the red knob
until the EGT's peak and then get to 10-20 degrees on the other side of
peak temperatures. I know that this will not work for everyone but for
my IO-360 it gives me a cool, smooth running engine that is only
drinking 9.5 GPH.



When you say, "EGT's", I assume you mean an EGT per cylinder?

Greg

On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 16:20:02 GMT, Jon Kraus wrote:

I did some checking around my area today (thanks www.100ll.com) about
what the fuel prices are, and was surprised to learn that my home base
(KTYQ) is charging $4.47

Great website! Not to make ya jealous Jon, but Av gas is cheaper then car
gas at some airports here in MS. (2.99 per gallon)

Last week, I had a 8 hour round trip drive to Corinth MS, which costed me
98.40 to fill up in car gas in my truck.

Had I flown (LIFR conditions stopped me - below my minimums), it would have
costed me about 80 dollars for a 2 1/4 hour round trip flight so it would
have been cheaper to fly figuring $4.00 per gallon had it been that high.

As far as the cost, well, when I balance my time to the cost of Av gas, and
the privilidge of flight, well it's worth it to me.

For local flights, I fly at 100 knots rather then 110 I plan for XC flights
so I get more flight time per gallon.

Other then that, I don't do anything different insofar as leaning the
engine and the like.

Allen

("Jon Kraus" wrote)
I did some checking around my area today (thanks www.100ll.com) about what
the fuel prices are, and was surprised to learn that my home base (KTYQ) is
charging $4.47 (the highest in the area), and that includes our
based-on-the-field discount. That is up around $1.00 from a little over a
year ago and it has forced me into several revelations.


I wonder how many owners are taking a second look at speed/efficiency mods
these days, because of rising fuel costs?


Montblack

Most of the speed mods makes the biggest difference at the top end of
the cruise speed, where parasite drag hurts the most. At the much
slower max-range speed, parasite drag isn't as significant because its
proportional to the square of the calibrated airspeed. Because of this
reason, speed mods only has a very modest effect to fuel efficiency at
lower speed.

The best "mod" you can get to make fuel cost more bearable is the
autogas STC, if you're lucky enough to own a model that can get the
STC, and you can get ethanol free autogas.

M wrote:


The best "mod" you can get to make fuel cost more bearable is the
autogas STC, if you're lucky enough to own a model that can get the
STC, and you can get ethanol free autogas.

Or just buy a more efficient plane. I sold my 182 and got a Bonanza.
I'm burning a lot less gas, approx 40%, than when I had my 182.

("Newps" wrote)
Or just buy a more efficient plane. I sold my 182 and got a Bonanza. I'm
burning a lot less gas, approx 40%, than when I had my 182.


What are the two engines?
Your normal cruise speeds between the two?

Curious? I wouldn't have thought that the case.


Montblack
Hangar is still in play. No offer yet. g