Originally Posted by achimha
The Rotax powered fleet tend to use 98 octane mogas. Unfortunately the EU now requires the oil companies to add up to 10% ethanol which the Rotax engines/fuel systems are not certified for so aerodromes have to determine the ethanol concentration for each fuel delivery.
In fact the do run on E10. See the latest service instruction from Rotax:
http://www.flyrotax.com/portaldata/5/dokus/d04899.pdf it's listed on page 10.
Interesting topic about diesel and aviation. Personally I believe in electric rather than diesel as a future for the GA. Some day the oil wells be be dry and according to some, this is going to happen sooner than later.
Electric engines just have so many advantages if compared to piston or diesel driven engines. No more oil changes or carburetor icing, no more leaning or having to worry about the availability of "juice" for the ride. No more oil checks before flight or having to suffer of a massive decrease in performance when we visit an altiport.
Sure we have a long way to go before we have batteries which are light enough to take up in the air and still providing enough power to get from the UK to the Costa Brava and some way to "fill the tanks" in a short period of time. But still the lookout for electric flying is promising.
In the meantime maybe Diesel, but it's mostly an European problem. Most of the GA of the world takes place in the US and as long as they will provide AVGAS, I don't see a mayor breakthrough in diesel technologies as long it's just a supply and demand problem.