Just as an aside, What was the storage life for the fuel, (both 100 and 87 Octaine)? Less than a year? Modern fuels degrade over time (visibly noticable by the gums and varnishes that seperate from the fuel and discolour it) and would cause all sorts of issues in use. The Fuel companies advise not keeping fuel stored for any great length of time.

I would assume they would have used some sort of rolling reserve system that as new shipments of fuel would be put into storage and the older stock sent out to be used. Does anyone know how they managed their fuel reserves?

I found this pdf file Collective Knowledge on Aviation Gasolines which, if you scroll down to pages 21 & 22 says:
"A petrol researcher named Charles F. Kettering and his assistant Thomas Midgley, and later Midgley‘s colleague Thomas Boyd, did about ten years of research on various fuel formulations and additives to both address the pinging noises heard in engines and to find a way to elongate the petroleum crude oil reserves (Kovarik, 1994/1999).

Shortly after its discovery, tetra-ethyl lead became ―‘Kettering‘s magic anti-knock fluid‘ (Kovarik, 1994/1999) that would provide the anti-knock margin necessary for engines to be designed both more efficiently to burn the fuel more fully in the combustion chambers and to generate more horsepower (Kovarik, 1994/1999). Lead was added to lower quality petroleum in low percentage volumes and this in combination with more effective combustion in the engines was recognized as an effective method for stretching the usage of refined crude oil products to help address oil shortage issues (Kovarik, 1994/1999).

Without going too much into detail about its advantages over other fuel additives to reduce knock, tetra-ethyl lead did not have a high freezing point, did not gum while in storage, did not lower the overall energy content or BTUs, and very little of it was needed to provide the benefits it was designed to deliver (Kovarik, 1994/1999). Tetra-ethyl lead did attack parts of the engine if too much was left behind after combustion, thus the need to use a scavenger such as bromide which achieved market dominance to meet this purpose (Kovarik, 1994/1999). Overall, tetra-ethyl lead became the low percentage additive of choice to help alleviate demands on oil reserves and to prevent knock even though health concerns over its manipulation had already been brought to the public‘s attention from its onset (Kovarik, 1994/1999)." This is wrong in that TEL didn't stop gumming altogether, but probably helped reduce it to manageable levels over a longer storage life.

The current shelf-life for 100 Octane (100LL) is about a year. There's also an article here.

The Air Ministry produced books called the Aeroplane maintenance and Operation Series No. 16 "Aeroplane Fuel and Oil Systems" which had a chapter on Testing Aeroplane Fuel. While this does not specify a shelf life it describes the testing regime to ensure that aviation fuel is able to be used: for 87 Octane fuel it specifies "(a) Existent gum = not more than 100 milligrams per litre, by evaporative glass test (b) Potential gum = not more than 100 milligrams per litre after heating at 35° C. for 20 hours." Presumably testing was carried out from the fuel storage facilities all the way down to Squadron level.

Crump wouldn't happen to fly blue by any chance would he?

He actully claims (or at least did) he plays NO PC games what so ever..

Which IMHO is funny, in an odd way, either way you look at it (true or false)

In that case why would he hang around a gaming forum disagreeing with majority opinion without evidence......

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NVVaosKw4z.../cutetroll.jpg

S!

This fuel testing is done today also every day to ensure that no contaminants or similar enter the plane. Sure the methods are a bit better though. Leave out the smack talk etc. and this thread is very interesting.

Bingo!

That is one of the 'funny' thing I was referring too..

I am sure he considers it some sort of 'duty' on his part to set things right in the simmer world! Because god knows a guy with a pilot's license trumps anything said by a guy without a pilot's license! Some (most?) pilots are funny like that! Which reminds me of a little joke..

If your in a room full of people..

Question.. Do you know how to tell who are the pilots in the room?
Answer.. Easy, they are the ones that during any introduction point out they are pilots

Example

You: Hi my name is Dave what is your name?
Pilot: Hello my name is Eugene, I am a pilot!

The wristwatch. It's the wristwatch that's the giveaway. Every time.

Cool! I'ld better start mentioning it a bit more often. Did you know I've got a ..... Hang on! Do you need a current medical certificate??????

;)

Don't confuse the sweetened stock with the blended fuel you put in your tank. Blending does not occur until the gas is leaving the storage facility and heading for the pump to be sold or put into a vehicle to be used. Once it is blended, it is considered consumed.

All the 100LL stock is made one time per year. It is not blended though until it is sold to an airport. The Reid Vapor Pressure tolerances of aviation fuel are much more stringent than automotive fuel.

http://ask.cars.com/2009/02/whats-th...y-cars-pe.html

You can get away with blending automotive fuel twice per year for the most part.

Airplane fuel does not work that way. My old Socata used to have vapor lock issues because I did not fly for months when I was away on business. The plane would sit with full tanks in the hanger. By the time I got to fly it, the conditions had changed from when it blended to maintain Reid VP and I would end up hitting the auxiliary fuel pump all the time to keep my fuel pressure up so the engine would not quit. Once that gas was out of my tanks, I did not have to use the aux pump except for start, takeoff, and landing.