Neat pix of gunk in Austrailian Aviation Fuel

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http://www.casa.gov.au/corporat/fuel.htm

Guess I'm just fascinated by what computers can do today. In my mind (stuck somewhere in the late '60's), computers only compute. To be able to actually see pictures of this gunk is pretty neat.

-- Pam (jpjgood@penn.com), January 20, 2000

Answers

link

Thanks Pam.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), January 20, 2000.


Pam, the gunk in the picture looks like a fuel alge bloom,I had contaminated fuel,(diesel) many times aboard my fishing schooner up Alaska way. Yes! there is alge that lives in fuel. aboard vessels we put an additive in and keep changing fuel filters, fuel in prop aircraft don't filter their avgas ,they expect it to be clean and uncontaminated.

-- merek (merek@aloha.net), January 20, 2000.

I would not want to be the CEO of Mobil Australia right now. The liability for this contamination and the grounding of aircraft is going to be HUGE. Remember that in Australia, light aircraft are the principle method of mail and supply to hundreds of towns in the Outback.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), January 20, 2000.

I worked in Petroleum analysis in the Army during the Vietnam war. You'd be surprised the number of contamination problems from the suppliers. Our base nearly ran out of Avgas when I rejected the whole load of Avgas from a tanker ship. Using that load would have burned out the planes engines. Then there's cross-contamination. Supplier pumps avgas into a tanker that just offloaded diesel. You'd be surprised what a little of this or that can do to a load of fuel. Then there's the mobile tankers. Can't blame the drivers, but they used to run down the roads with the loading hatches open. An empty gas tanker with the hatches sealed getting hit by an RPG is not pretty. With the hatches open, at least if it does blow, it has a vent. But with them open, dirt, water and wildlife end up in the tanker. I have actually seen dead bugs after filter testing JP4. Algae does'nt live in diesel. It lives in the water that so often is found in diesel fuel. We used to have to open the drains on our tanks and let the foul-smelling water and sludge drain out. Has anyone figure out how the fuel was comtaminated?

-- Just (Justsoyou@know.com), January 24, 2000.

http://www.casa.gov.au/ Dear Just-- If you go to this location an click on AVGAS Update (in yellow, top left) it will give you the latest. Scroll down, they keep adding stuff.

-- Pam (jpjgood@penn.com), January 24, 2000.


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