Couple of weeks ago I landed at a popular airfield here in Portugal to refuel.
The refuel guy came after having lunch, climbed the ladder and was about to start filling, he suddenly stopped, came down and said “No no no… no decals, no fuel”. He then pointed me to a notice that was stuck on his office door.
The notice (in Portuguese with pictures) said something like you need to indicate using appropriate decals the type of fuel the aircraft needs.
The refueler told me “Otherwise how can I know if it’s avgas or jet feul?”. I was in the club’s C150.
A choice of possible responses came to mind; “How many 150s do you think take Jet fuel?” or “I’m chaining myself to the fuel pump until you agree to refill”. Instead I said “Ok… what I can I please do to get some fuel?”
“Don’t worry” he said and took out 2 small red “avgas” stickers. “Just stick these next to the fuel taps”. I climbed the latter and stuck them on. Worrying that these “official” pieces of plastic might cost €100 each I asked him how much he’s going to charge for them. His response was “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s free!”.
“Speaking of being ridiculous, I wasn’t the one suggesting to put jet fuel in a C150” is what I wanted to say… but instead I said “Obrigado”.
In the end it wasn’t a big deal, he was following rules and was helpful and friendly but I wonder… What would have happened if he didn’t have the avgas sticker? Is there anywhere a regulation that dictates this? Does anyone have similar experiences?
One of the decals pealed off by the time I landed in the next airfield. I guess I can now refuel only one wing 
I had a similar experience in France except that the fuel guy was a little more… accommodating. He just told me that they were not allowed to refuel an aircraft that was not appropriately labeled. The aircraft had stickers, but not of the right kind, ie. not the right colour. So he just gave me two stickers that I put on and problem solved.
Liability strikes again.
In a perfect world the directive should be “no fuelling without stickers unless the pilot is present during refuelling”.
However, if someone still messes up big time, and then a legal action ensues, without stickers they (the refuelling company) would have a hard time proving that the pilot said which fuel he wanted. Hence they just say “stickers required. Period”.
On the other hand, on every more or less “modern” aircraft I know, the sticker near the fuelling points is a legally required placard anyway, for airworthiness purposes, so I wonder why your Cessna didn’t have these…
I made my own stickers to reflect the requirements of the auto fuel STC… not that I’ll ever again be able to find conforming auto fuel. My IA won’t sign off an annual without fuel stickers, per the Type Certificate.
I would take a red marker and write it on the wing :-)
It’s probably going to be more of an issue as more and more Jet-A burning diesels start cropping up: they look like piston engine aircraft especially to a non-aircraft-identificaton-expert fuel guy.
At the airport I used to be based out of (KSPX, Houston Gulf, now sadly a McMansion housing estate with houses all made out of ticky-tacky just like in the song) we had a based Jetprop DLX conversion. One of the newer line guys filled a visiting Malibu with Jet-A, since he had already grown accustomed to fuelling the very similar looking Jetprop. Fortunately the mistake was caught before the guy took off.
This is indeed a potential problem already. Flying a Avgas fed DA40, I once after landing asked tower for fuel and they sent the Avtur truck.
Frankly I consider these stickers an additional safety feature in everybody’s interest.
I have original 1971 “AVGAS” markings written on the wings. The French nevertheless insist on their kind of stickers.
It’s also true ‘Kraftstoff 100LL 74L’ on the wing as applied by the factory generally doesn’t conform to aircraft Type Certificate.. However, the color of the sticker is not specified by either of my TCs. I’d tell the line boy that the TC and my direction are what should matter to him.
Last month a line boy put my fuel caps on backwards, vents facing backwards. I did take the time to explain to him how they work, with the hope that the lesson would stick. You really do have to watch line boys, and not rely on stickers etc. or just fuel it yourself.
What sticker would be appropriate for my Rotax 912?
Allowable fuels, in order of (mostly financial) preference:
MoGas 95 / MoGas 98 / Hjelmco 91/96 / Total 91/96 / Avgas 100LL
I have to say that, the one time it might have mattered, which was at LFAC Calais, the fuel chap cum fireman never said a word about no sticker at all: he had only 100LL on offer, anyway.
@Silvaire: I heartily agree nothing is better than self service – though it seems the Vatican is opposed to that principle, in certain areas… ;)
