October 24, 2008
Why are avgas prices still holding near their all-time highs, while automobile gasoline prices continue to free-fall to near last year’s prices?
Are we being gouged by avgas?
Just updated my fuel price service, 100LL.com, part of my Control Vision Anywhere Map subscription. At my home field, the price of self-serve avgas is $5.28 per gallon. According to the fuel pricing service, the national average is $5.08 (updated as of 10/23/2008. Meanwhile, local low grade auto gasoline, mogas, is running about $3.15 a gallon, and some of the cheapest outlets are slipping below the $3 level. That a 60% difference in price between avgas and mogas.
Ok, I understand all about avgas being a niche product produced in small quantities, needing special handling and shipping because of the lead content, and the price change lag (both up and down) because of fewer flight hours requiring longer to consume supplies bought at higher prices.
Avweb has an editorial about this, but basically says the FBO business is difficult, so grin and pay the prices. Nope. AOPA needs to get involved in this.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to use 100LL.com to avoid the FBOs who insist on holding the higher prices.
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Aviation | Tagged: 100LL, Anywhere Map, AOPA, avgas prices, Aviation, Avweb, Control Vision, gasoline prices, pilots | 
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Posted by brianflys
October 18, 2008
Beautiful weather, and a beautiful location for some formation flying last weekend. Santa Maria, California (KSMX). Inland enough that there were no worries about the marine layer coming in to delay the day’s flying. But close enough to the central California coast to allow some great photo ops.
Formation Flying at Santa Maria, Oct 2008
Fun weekend for the West Coast Hepcats, an informal group of pilots flying Grumman light single aircraft. Informal, but very serious about our formation flying. We take this very seriously (with strong focus on safety), following FFI and Grumman formation flying standards. This weekend our training included 2-ship and 4-ship formations (I’m flying slot in the above photo) and even a 6-ship formation with a Delta configuration. If you are interested in flying formation, PLEASE get the appropriate training. It is intense, safe, and fun when the participants are properly trained, led, briefed, and can execute (good stick-and-rudder skills).
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Aviation | Tagged: FFI, flying, formation, Grumman, pilots, Santa Maria, SMX, True Flight Aerospace, West Coast Hepcats | 
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Posted by brianflys
