SAN JOSE — Reid-Hillview Airport has become the first airport in the United States to offer unleaded fuel that can be used in all general aviation aircraft, according to a Santa Clara County news release.
After concerns arose about high blood lead levels in children living around the airport following a County-commissioned study in 2021, officials started phasing out leaded fuel at the airport. The new 100-octane unleaded fuel, abbreviated as G100UL, provides an alternative to 100-octane low lead fuel for piston-powered general aviation planes, like high-performance aircraft, that couldn’t use 94-octane unleaded fuel.
Director of County Airports Eric Peterson said around 35% of general aviation aircraft in the country cannot use the lower-octane unleaded fuel. Lead concerns have also been a hot-button issue contributing to whether or not the county might close the airport in future years.
“Offering G100UL to our airport users has been years in the making,” Peterson said. “This fueling alternative positions RHV as the first airport in the nation to offer unleaded aviation fuel for the entire general aviation community and we are pretty excited about that.”
The new fuel was delivered to Reid-Hillview Airport on Oct. 28 and full-service truck-to-airplane fueling began on Oct. 30. It costs $6.99 per gallon for full-service fuel delivery. Fueling hours at Reid-Hillview Airport are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day of the week.
David Goodin, vice president of business development at AllMotion, has a Cessna 310 that cannot that cannot take the lower-octane fuel. He said that although he is glad that there is a convenient fueling option for him at Reid-Hillview, he is not certain that this fuel is compatible with other types of fuel that can be used in the plane.
“It is a good thing, because if I were, for whatever reason, down here and had to use more fuel than I could carry to get back to Nevada, then that would be convenient to fuel up on that fuel,” Goodin said.
The county first replaced typical leaded aviation fuel, with 94-octane unleaded fuel in January 2022. The unleaded fuel was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration for use in around 68% of the piston-powered aircraft that use Reid-Hillview and San Martin airports.
The 2021 study analyzed 17,000 blood samples taken from children living around the airport between 2011 and 2020.
It found that children who lived closer to the airport had higher blood lead levels than those who lived farther away, especially among children who lived east of the facility, likely contributed by downwind distribution of particulates from the airport. They also found that blood lead levels were more elevated in correlation with high piston engine aircraft traffic from the airport.
“This is a victory for the children and families on the East Side who have been historically marginalized and whose voices, and legitimate health concerns, have been disregarded for too long,” said Supervisor Cindy Chavez, whose district includes the East Side neighborhood of San José where the airport is located. “My deepest hope is that leaded aviation fuel is phased out of every general aviation airport in the U.S.”
General Aviation Modifications, Inc., which manufactures and sells the fuel, held an event in coordination with the county to offer free Supplemental Type Certificates for pilots with aircraft based at Reid-Hillview and San Martin airports. The certificate signifies FAA approval of a modification to someone’s plane, like a change in fuel.
Peterson said around 125 certificates were issued on Saturday. Bay Area pilots who don’t keep their aircraft at either Santa Clara County airport were also able to get 25 gallons of the G100UL fuel.
Stephen McHenry, a pilot based at the San Martin Airport in the southern part of the county, said the pilots he’s heard from are embracing the additional offer for unleaded fuel.
He said that unleaded fuel was a better option for aircraft as lead can foul plugs in a plane and cause lead deposits to build up in valves that need to be cleaned, leading to higher costs due to the time and expense to perform maintenance on the plane. But now that the airport is offering this unleaded fuel, “those things should go away,” McHenry said.
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Michelle Galvis, co-founder of Hera School at Reid-Hillview Airport, said the county was “gracious” with the rollout of the unleaded fuel since pilots based in Santa Clara County airports were reimbursed for the cost of switching fuel types.
She also said the 100-octane fuel is cheaper than the 94-octane fuel, so the county’s efforts to help people switch actually didn’t have any major effects on her or her flight school. “In fact, it’s helping.”
Peterson said that the county is in discussions with the fueling operator at San Martin Airport to possibly distribute the 100-octane fuel there as well.
“We are really excited to be able to offer both of these fuels, and we’re really looking forward to how this affects fueling offerings throughout the Bay Area, because I believe there will be others that follow our lead now that we’ve done this,” Peterson said.