Seeking to understand for its membership the long-term effects of various new fuels on the general aviation market, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has begun flight testing unleaded, high-octane avgas in a Beechcraft Baron.
The project launched this week with the introduction of GAMI’s G100UL during initial flights in Ada, Oklahoma. Beginning with a baseline of two freshly overhauled Continental IO-520 engines, the Baron will be operated under AOPA management, with the cooperation of Savvy Maintenance founder and technician guru Mike Busch, using the company’s computerized diagnostic tools to analyze engine data and compare it against the information it has collected from “hundreds of thousands of hours of GA flights,” according to an AOPA release.
