Does glow fuel damage grass or not?
 

In order not to hijack the C/L comeback thread, I'm starting this new one.
With C/L sites disappearing, often the official excuse is damage to grass.
Add your comments here.

Yes, its better than Round Up for killing grass.

Our old flying site had dirt patches for a year after we moved.

David

It also does a good job of staining asphalt. Some people use a rug under their planes during fueling. A good, heavy rug can also be used during startup. But don't let your wife catch you doing it.

What really hurt the grass was when we would start un-muffled engines with the exhaust pointing straight down and catch the dry grass on fire.

I heard of an RC club that lost access to a large open sod farm when the owner found out that the fuel would kill his grass.

I think it depends on the fuel and the grass. No dead grass where I fly.

Returning to the scene...

I ran the unmuffled Fox .40 Ringmaster at the local soccer field.
I hadn't put down any cardboard, etc. to protect the area.
As I set up the stooge exactly on a painted line, the only chemical burn spot was right on the line, and not noticeable about 1 week afterward.
I will lay down some cardboard, etc. when I am on other's properties, like these soccer fields.

Do you know it's a chemical burn and not just heat damage?

Yes, chemical, RC clubs get it too and they rarely have exhausts that come out of the side pointed down and I don't remember the last time we had a Fox inspired fire. But brown-dirt patches we got a plenty.

I fly mine in my front yard. Always start in the same place. The grass is just fine. I don't use nitro.

Okay, Joe!
So you're using zero percent fuel? Just methanol and oil?

It is easy to experiment, just dribble an oz. on the grass and keep looking occasionally to see what happens. I think FAI fuel will ruin the grass too, as will gasoline. We do pit stops on pavement and grass, and cool the motor by squirting fuel over the cylinder to cool it off, and fill the tank fast, and it squirts all over, making a mess on the ground and an oil spot on the pavement. It does not ruin the pavement, but is ugly. If you fill your plane carefully, and don't idle needlessly and adjust the needle or break the motor in on the grass for instance, then it will not be an issue. That video is a four stroke with the exhaust way up in the air. I would doubt there would be a problem there. Nice video too. Smooth flying plane.

I use 10% Castor oil and 10% Synthetic oil in methanol. It cost me about $4 per gallon. I cant tell the difference with out the nitro. I put 30% Castor oil in methanol for my Fox .35 and Torpedo.19 . And I put 10% castor oil and methanol in my big SuperTigre.

Where do you get your castor oil so cheap? I used FAI 80-20 for the speed class, and it required a different head than the very high nitro fuels that were used at the time. It was a trumpet shaped combustion chamber compared to the bowl. We had to use a #2 Rossi head. Nothing else would work, and the headspace had to be within a couple thousandths of an inch.. Otherwise it ran fine, an when using 10% nitro fuel as the rules are now, there was no change in speed. RC motors may suffer with a more unstable idle. We had to devarnish the motors every month or so. If I would use zero nitro now, I would use mostly synthetic with maybe 5% castor even with steel liners.

"Does glow fuel damage grass or not ?"

I believe it does , having seen (caused) that type of "bald spot" damage in the past with spilled fuel . I now have an electric pump with a return line to the fueling can so no fuel spills during fueling (with both my RC and CL planes) .
Heck , I've caused bald spots in my own lawn by spraying hornets nests with those canned Bee sprays that'll spray up to 20 feet , and having the liquid drip out of the nest and onto the grass . I imagine pretty much most chemicals will damage pretty much most living plants , maybe Monsanto needs to develop a strain of grass that's methanol resistant ?

Chemical BURN is given as follows ==> Nitromethane (CH3-NO2) & Alcohol (CH3OH-methanol) & Castor/Synthetic Lube Oil (polymer) & Air (diatomic N2 & diatomic O2 & others)
Plants & animals (biology) do not respond well to carbon/hydrogen/nitrogen/oxygen fuels. Hydrogen & Oxygen are especially reactive, especially in the presence of heat (like even sunshine - also, see Space Shuttle main fuel tank (H2) & oxidizer (O2) tanks) ,,, however slowly they may react. Nitrogen Oxides compounds (like R-NO2 - see nitromethane) are reactive as well - again, especially in the presence of heat. Further, when a biological system has Nitromethane/Alcohol/Lube Oil wetted onto the surface/skin, some fluid will soak-in or be absorbed ... then these biological systems will process these fluids ... which chemically are like a "poison" to their respective cellular processes .... OOOUUUCCCHH! There is no good news here.

Thanks, Flypast111!

I've always tried to launch in a sand area if possible baseball diamond. I have always used an over fill pint can it's vented the over flow goes into the can I just pour it back into.my fuel container. Is filtered into the plane.