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Occasionally, aircraft are inadvertently serviced with the wrong type of fuel and, in
most instances, it is because of misleading signs. For example, certain turbo-supercharged
reciprocating powered aircraft have paint designs with the word "turbo"
conspicuously displayed on the vertical stabilizer or on the engine nacelle. Line service
personnel have assumed this wording to mean "turbojet" and have filled the tanks
with jet fuel instead of avgas. Another incident involved an air carrier type aircraft
that was originally equipped with reciprocating engines, which most operators
had converted to turbo-props. The service personnel assumed that the aircraft was a
converted model, when in fact it was not.
Reciprocating engines may run briefly on jet fuel, but detonation and overheating will
soon cause power failure. So beware of getting jet fuel when you need avgas. Similarly, avgas is
no substitute for jet fuel. The engine failure caused by running a turbine engine
on the wrong fuel may not be as sudden, but prolonged operation on gasoline will severely
damage the engine due to the lead content and the different combustion ranges of the fuel.
Time limitations for use of avgas in turbine engines are listed in the airplane or
rotorcraft flight manual.
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