A minimum of planning and a few telephone calls, and you will get fuel anywhere.
That is categorically not my experience with avgas…
In most cases it would mean illegally stored fuel, and you aren’t going to get that unless you have “contacts”. And you certainly can’t rely on that if you would be stranded had the “contact” not delivered on the day.
I’ve had a few opportunities like that (southern Europe) which were potentially arranged by a local-language-speaking friend, but they could never be 100% verified.
One can fly all over Europe on avgas but one needs a plane with a long range, and even then one has to do a bit of planning. This trip illustrates the issue, with having to use (in this case) Samos LGSM as a “base”.
That is categorically not my experience with avgas…
The question was Mogas.
Peter, your trip report to Samos triggered my initial question! :-) I was wondering if this type of trips would be possible in a MOGAS airplane.
I have never seen MOGAS in Greece, but maybe some Greeks here can supply more info…
There is regulation in Greece (coming from EU as applied law) allowing own refueling with MOGAS or any fuel BUT …
… the requirements they put in are such of fixed based operators with things that a traveling passing by pilot cannot easily achieve.
From memory:
- Airport must have an established “self refueling plan” in their operation manual (per the above legislation).
- Designated grounding of aircraft must be done at designated refueling area.
- Fire extinguishers (normal ground op’s ones not the little one you carry in aircraft) to be present during refueling. (I think 2 of them)
- I think you are allowed to pass landside to airside max two 20 Lt cans per refueling
- They have to be the official metal cannisters
The worst part, you have to somehow get to a nearby gas station and back with the canisters filled. No TAXI driver will give you an easy ride on this because officially per their operation permit they are forbidden to transfer fuel in canisters. So no go or the pay more, go, way … which brings the cost to same or more of the AVGAS.
In conclusion only if you know a local based flyer or airclub member who uses MOGAS in the airport and has paved the way for establishing regular self refuel then you can do it via him.
Alternatively via the few ZZZZ fields available in Greece where its just a matter of getting in contact with the locals again but in these cases there are no CAA airport procedures.
This is how on Elba. I guess they do not want any GA tourists (with small planes) in Romania.
As has been already stated egines that run on MOGAS may also be able to use AVGAS so the availability in some places need not be of serious concern as long as you are aware, if running a Rotax unit, the the service intervals of the Rotax 912 914 series of engines is affected – details
As you can see, if properly maintained it should not cause a problem,
There are though issues with the use of MOGAS that the operator should be aware off, stated in this LAA document rather well.
The need for keeping the receipts has since been revised by the CAA, but decent provenance is a very good idea while the tank in the back of a hangar is best avoided. There is a bit more to it than doing the fuel flow tests and sticking on the placards, but the ability to run on both, or even all three if you count UL91 can be handy.
[URLs converted into links, due to a temporary issue with some URLs inserted directly into a post – Peter]
