Where do you guys get your fuel for your turbine engine? -Steve

We have been getting at a local FBO... Last time or two it was like pulling teeth... They have told us we can no longer get it there. We live in the Austin Texas area, & that seems to be the norm around here.. They are quoting federal regulations & tax issues.. Not sure if there is any truth to it.. Maybe just to lazy to go out & fill up a couple of 5 gallon cans.. However now we are using a 55 gallon drum.. A friend in College Station says no problem there, come on over & fill up.. 100 miles each way!!!
Dawn & Steve Elzey says no problem in the DFW area, I think there getting it at Grand Prarie airport... Don't know what to tell ya... seems hit & miss to me. If anyone knows the real fact's of the laws on this subject I would like to know if the guys down here are just giving us a line of bs...

Good Luck,

Dan Massey

Ya,getting the Jet-A can be a little hard sometimes. One of the complaints i have heared from airport fuelers is that the Jet-A pump is geared to pump alot of fuel in a short time, and filling a small 5 gallon can is to hard without over filling. I use orderless karo 1k. It's more expencsive ($18 for 5 gallons) but it's easy for me to get and it dosn't stink the house up so bad.

Andy

Holy cow this fuel does not cost much at all! I figured it would be much more than $18 for 5 gallons. -Steve

Five gallons will only give you about 10 or so full flights at 2 litres a flight plus the price of the oil which is about 10 dolars a quart which will mix about five gallons of kero,give or take a bit.
jason

I get mine at Home Depot in the paint section. It's 100% pure water clear. About $3.25 a gallon. The local airport where I get the turbine oil at says they will sell me 5 gallon batches but I have heard so much about the fuel and the crud that is in it.

The small airport I go to has a pump truck and a regular pump. All I do is walk in, swipe the card, punch a few letters (tail # supposedly) and pump my own. The cost varies with the gas prices. Right now, it's $1.49/gal. The highest I've paid from the pump is $1.69 The pump truck is slightly more, but no need to use the truck because I can walk in 24 hrs/day and pump my own. I hope it stays like that.

George
SimJet USA

Hi Pilots,
why can't you run your model turbines on diesel fuel ?-is it not almost the same as kerosene-I know for a fact that we used to run our full size PT6 turboshaft engines on it when the price of Jet A went sky high-and we had no problems with it. Anyone know any real reason why we should/can- not run diesel fuel ? This is a serious question.



Jackjet

As I understand it, Diesel is not as refined as clear kero or JetA. It can 'coke' up our model turbines. I'd stay away from it.

I'm no turbine expert, but i do fill up airliners at the airport where i work from time to time, so i know a few things about Jet-A1.

As stated, regular diesel fuel is a less refined form of jet-fuel. It has more oil in it, and is more polluted with other things, like water and other particles that will effect fine-tuned nozzles over time. It's cheaper to produce due to the fact that a car-engine stopping due to low quality fuel will in the worst case only cause a traffic-jam, while jet-fuel is produced with a higher quality at a higher cost to prevent major disasters.

You will have no problem running a diesel-engine on Jet-A1 if you just add approx. 2% 2-cycle oil to it, but i would not recommend the other way around.

Diesel is good for cars, trucks, and other things that don't fly, while jet-fuel is for things that depend on an engine running perfectly at all times...

Diesel fuel has a high particulate content, this is the soot that you see coming out of the exhaust stacks of trucks. Yes this fuel is refined the least.

Jet A is an intermediate kerosene. For the operators that use it (lots of it) cost is the most important factor. Jet A is refined just well enough where the onboard system can deal with it without problems. Also, unless your a single engine fighter, flaming out an engine on a commercial aircraft is just a minor inconvience. It happens more often than you think.

Note: there have been 289 F-16's lost to date due to engine flameouts. That happens when you got only one engine.

K1 kenosene is the most highly refined of the kerosene, you also notice it's the most expensive too. You'll find the least amount of particulate matter in K1.

So, if you want to have the look of a full size jet AKA F-4 Phantom (heavy smoker) then burn diesel. You'll get both the sight and sound of jet flight.

Next time you guys go to get fuel from a fbo and they tell you its hard to pump small amounts,tell them to do one of 2 things.A.Turn down the pump pressure so it barely pumps.or B.Pull the fuel from the sumps.As far as jet-a having alot of crud in it,I dont know where yours is coming from ,but that fbo better think about cleaning out their trucks once in awhile.We pay a guy to come out twice a year and get inside the tanker and scrub and remove any mildew or build up.P.S. If your near northern jersey,email me.your more then welcome to take some of this sumped fuel off my hands for free,and yes its clean.

I get Kero at my local Hess gass station out of the pump .... easy to get, and relatively cheap at $2.50 / gal


Voy

Hi all
We reqomend either kerosene, Jet A1 or diesel to our engine Hawk 100R.
We can't se any difference in performance.
If you talk about Diesel in USA I am not shoure it's the same quality as in Europe. (EN590)
We also reqomend 1,5% of two stroke oil.

We have not found any clogging or something that tells us to not reqomend it.
We strongly reqomend to use a filter of god quality on your fuel station if using car Diesel.

Regards
Anders Wikman
Hawk Turbine