With a growing number of light aircraft taking on jet-A instead of avgas—from a diesel-powered Cessna 172 to the single-engine Cirrus VisionJet—a prudent pilot stays on guard to supervise fueling if at all possible. But anecdotally speaking, many of us have operated under the impression that misfuelling a piston airplane burning 100LL with jet fuel is tough to do, given the difference in filler-neck sizes and pump-nozzle diameters.
Accident Analysis Compels Pilots to Check Fuel
Key Takeaways:
- Misfueling piston aircraft with jet fuel is a serious and potentially fatal risk, even with pilot supervision and correct placards, often due to an incorrect nozzle size on jet fuel trucks.
- Jet-A and 100LL mix effectively, making visual or olfactory detection in a fuel sample very difficult for pilots.
- Pilots can use simple field tests, such as an evaporation test on paper or with a GATS fuel straining jar, to detect the presence of jet-A in an avgas sample.
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