Military types in civvie schemes

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Easy to tell the difference between grades visually. 100/130 is blue. It's one of the things we look at when we check the fuel, so we can tell it's the correct grade, or even correct fuel.....my bugsmashers won't run on jet fuel too well.
When we do a fuel drain, we smell the fuel - to make sure it's actually fuel, and not a heap of water, check the colour, and look for water or other contaminants. All part of the daily inspection, and something we have to do after each refuelling.

[Knotty]

Your right men , 100-130 Octane was green , 115-145 was purple , with 100LL blue . The reason for the different colours Ray was simply so you could tell them apart . 145 Octane in say a Tiger Moth was not good !!!! the difference between the fuels was significant ..........a Wright 3350 turbo compound engine could lose a lot of horsepower on 100LL with as much as 40 knots knocked off the cruise speed . the colder the fuel the better , drag cars run the fuel line through a dry ice bucket for this reason . The denser the fuel the better it burns . You get more bang for your buck so to speak !!!

[tor lives]

Just run everything on JP7 as per SR-71
TOR

[Knotty]

Easy to tell the difference between grades visually. 100/130 is blue. It's one of the things we look at when we check the fuel, so we can tell it's the correct grade, or even correct fuel.....my bugsmashers won't run on jet fuel too well.
When we do a fuel drain, we smell the fuel - to make sure it's actually fuel, and not a heap of water, check the colour, and look for water or other contaminants. All part of the daily inspection, and something we have to do after each refuelling.

Water separates out of Avgas really well , and because the water is heavier it goes to the bottom fairly quickly , where as Jet -A1 will hold water in suspension some times unable to be picked up by the human eye . That's why we use She'll water detector capsules . You need a fair slug of water in Jet before the naked eye can see it .

Good procedures Damo , as you can't rely on the refueller to deliver the correct grade . we have a guy from Morrabbin working with us now what a complete dill he is .........you may know of him ,Mr D Hosie . It's at times what he gets up to .

[Knotty]

Why were all these fuel cuts different colours???
TOR

Most fuels are made clear Ray , they put dyes in the fuel so you can tell them apart . Same goes for LPG , in its natural state it has no smell at all , so they add the smell to it so you can work out if the stuff is leaking . 1 litre of LPG becomes 10,000 litres when released into the atmosphere ........pretty scary stuff !!!!

[hrtpaul]

The main reason for the different grades of fuel is to prevent detonation and damage to the engine. So your low compression bug smasher engine will happily run on 100LL (Low Lead). Put the same shit in a higher compression and supercharged P-51 and you either have to run a lot less boost which = a lot less power, or if you run the same boost as you would on the higher octane fuel, you'll be up for at least a very expensive engine rebuild. More if it fails in the air obviously If you ran 145 octane in a Tigermoth you'd foul the plugs very quickly due to the high lead content. Lead was added to prevent the onset of detonation so the higher the octane rating, the higher the lead content. In a P-51 boost is limited to around IIRC 40" on 100LL as opposed to 65" when running on 145 Oh and allegedly a certain Torana used to run beautifully on 100/130. Just don't tell the fuzz *looks around for Andrew*

[Cap'n Wannabe]

Good procedures Damo , as you can't rely on the refueller to deliver the correct grade . we have a guy from Morrabbin working with us now what a complete dill he is .........you may know of him ,Mr D Hosie . It's at times what he gets up to .

Did he work at AirBP by any chance?

Paul, back in the day I knew a few people who'd use 2 litre coke bottles to "drain a fuel sample" from the fleet of Warriors and Cougars around a certain airport....the samples would then end up in a Mini, or a Hillman Minx, or various other shitboxes....they'd go real fast, but not real far..

[davecana]

Just run everything on JP7 as per SR-71
TOR

Except JP-7 was at the other end of the fuel spectrum, a very high flash point and low volatility. It was so hard to ignite initially, it needed to have TEB injected to initiate combustion through a chemical reaction. It was a blended fuel and not a distilled fuel, designed to not boil at 80,000 ft and to give a low infra-red heat signature.

[Knotty]

Good procedures Damo , as you can't rely on the refueller to deliver the correct grade . we have a guy from Morrabbin working with us now what a complete dill he is .........you may know of him ,Mr D Hosie . It's at times what he gets up to .

Did he work at AirBP by any chance ?

I think it was Shell Damo , his mate Spike is looking for a job also , needless to say we are not interested in him either . Let's just say that there is a massive difference between a C-150 compared to fuelling a 747 or an A380 to LAX O'l mate is just not up to it !! You would know him , lots of Yeah ....Nah in every sentence , and takes him half an hour to get a sentence out !!!

[tor lives]

Just run everything on JP7 as per SR-71
TOR

Except JP-7 was at the other end of the fuel spectrum, a very high flash point and low volatility. It was so hard to ignite initially, it needed to have TEB injected to initiate combustion through a chemical reaction. It was a blended fuel and not a distilled fuel, designed to not boil at 80,000 ft and to give a low infra-red heat signature.

Yeah it was a unique fuel alright....so much so that it had it's own sub-variant of tanker aircraft (KC-135Q) to dispense it to the SR71s.
TOR