[bbbair]

Fuel; A basic item that can cause all sorts of problems.

Last year my son gave me a gallon of 30% Helicopter Fuel. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I took it and bought some FAI no nitro – so now I have two gallons of 15% - right?

I put it in my OS 90 FS and went flying after 5 minutes – DEAD STICK!.... hmmm tune and adjust the OS – no change. Go through all of the normal checks (Glow plug, gaps etc – problem remains) Add Caster to the fuel – lots of oil now. No luck – more dead sticks.

OK the season is over, and I put it all away last fall. So now I pull out the fuel mix it up with some old 5% that was working well last fall and I put it into my Thunder Tiger 42 GP. Three flights produced three dead sticks after 5 minutes of run time…

Begged a tank (6 oz) of fuel (15%) from a buddy and went flying flawlessly for 12 minutes…

SO! … What is in 30% Heli fuel that does not work in my engines?

I getting ready to use this stuff to start my camp fire – what a waste of 2 ½ gallons of fuel, but it’s much cheaper than loosing an AC!