AvGas Sales in Steep Decline

Henning said:
Oil field workers and utility planes. The oilfields have basically shut down most all of their programs and laid everyone off, watch it get worse.
Click to expand...

I guess you ain't been to Oklahoma lately :wink2:

I can see 7 rigs just looking out my window.
 
Last edited:
Our banker wizard guy told me wait to buy our mini-mansion here in TX.

If oil stays down, housing is going to nose dive.
 
txflyer said:
I was all hot to trot for an RV-8 until I rode in the back of one. I don't fit. Sure wouldn't want to ride very far back there.

For me, an 8 would only serve my purpose if I were up front all the time with a munchkin or no one in the back.

After I struggled and got out, we went up in the skywagon and I felt like OMG! this is like a DC-3 compared to that! :redface:
Click to expand...

I ride in the back of an RV-8 every other leg. I'm 6' tall, 200 lbs, and am quite comfy.

You must be a REALLY big guy, not to fit! (And why would you ride in the back? Is your S.O. a pilot, too?)
 
Jay Honeck said:
I ride in the back of an RV-8 every other leg. I'm 6' tall, 200 lbs, and am quite comfy.

You must be a REALLY big guy, not to fit! (And why would you ride in the back? Is your S.O. a pilot, too?)
Click to expand...


I'm 6'3"+

I was in the back of a brand new one just doing taxi trials. We didn't even leave the ground. He does have big nice cushions. Maybe there's a work around, but it was cramped. :redface:

On the plus side, he had me fly chase for his inaugural flight, and he left me in the dust.
 
txflyer said:
Our banker wizard guy told me wait to buy our mini-mansion here in TX.

If oil stays down, housing is going to nose dive.
Click to expand...

Housing is going to at least level out here in Texas. Here on the island, things have gotten so crazy that you'd have to be nuts to buy now. Prices have tripled in just a few years.

Yet, amazingly, I keep seeing/hearing people buying property here, in droves. I saw a double-wide trailer on stilts sell for over $300K here recently! :dunno:

On the flipside, I recently saw an airplane sale collapse because the buyer was an "oil guy" and he had just watched his net worth plummet in the last few months.
 
Henning said:
I get daily notices of the shut downs and lay offs.:dunno:
Click to expand...

You are actually right about most areas. However, the boom is still in full swing here in SC OK. Some producers have pulled resources from the Bakken and other areas and continue to poke holes here in the Woodford Shale. My drive to and from work is quite treacherous due to all the rig traffic. Continental for one, has committed to their original drill plans for the forseeable future. My company has committed to their plans to build three new natural gas processing plants in the next two years. One is coming online as we speak. We'll be increasing capacity by more than 1 BCF/d in the coming months. The oil and gas business is and always will be boom and bust. Those of us in the industry understand that and don't get too worked up when we hit a down trend.
 
Last edited:
txflyer said:
I'm 6'3"+

I was in the back of a brand new one just doing taxi trials. We didn't even leave the ground. He does have big nice cushions. Maybe there's a work around, but it was cramped. :redface:

On the plus side, he had me fly chase for his inaugural flight, and he left me in the dust.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that extra 3" could be a problem. Thinner cushions could help.

Take a look at this picture. See Mary in the backseat? No? That's because she's just 5' tall! :lol: But as you can tell, I've got plenty of headroom.

EDIT: Would you ever sit in the back? The front is enormous, comparatively.

1001954_667223436646887_6366934889324596874_n.jpg
 
Last edited:
I've sat in the front and it's no problem with the adjustable rudder pedals.

But essentially it's a single seat aircraft for me.
 
Henning said:
Oil field workers and utility planes. The oilfields have basically shut down most all of their programs and laid everyone off, watch it get worse.
Click to expand...
Utility planes were mostly turbine. They need to be able to carry those big guys and all their gear. :D
 
OkieFlyer said:
You are actually right about most areas. However, the boom is still in full swing here in SC OK. Some producers have pulled resources from the Bakken and other areas and continue to poke holes here in the Woodford Shale. My drive to and from work is quite treacherous due to all the rig traffic. Continental for one, has committed to their original drill plans for the forseeable future. My company has committed to their plans to build three new natural gas processing plants in the next two years. One is coming online as we speak. We'll be increasing capacity by more than 1 BCF/d in the coming months.
Click to expand...

Gas is a different subject, even if the prices and contracts on it are also being affected.
 
OkieFlyer said:
You are actually right about most areas. However, the boom is still in full swing here in SC OK. Some producers have pulled resources from the Bakken and other areas and continue to poke holes here in the Woodford Shale. My drive to and from work is quite treacherous due to all the rig traffic. Continental for one, has committed to their original drill plans for the forseeable future. My company has committed to their plans to build three new natural gas processing plants in the next two years. One is coming online as we speak. We'll be increasing capacity by more than 1 BCF/d in the coming months.
Click to expand...


That's interesting because cows don't fuel our skywagon, Ngas does.

I'm not an operator, just a royalty owner. Our income tanked $100K between 2013 and 14.

I'm beginning to think I'm stuck with 2 and $3 dollar Ngas for the rest of my life. :sad:
 
Everskyward said:
Utility planes were mostly turbine. They need to be able to carry those big guys and all their gear. :D
Click to expand...

Other than pipeline operations, most of the oilfield GA is flying the engineers and big shots too and from the different fields from the home offices in jets. I don't see too many piston aircraft used in the oilfield. Other than that, they use helicopters for the seismic surveying before laying out a new field.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Other than pipeline operations, most of the oilfield GA is flying the engineers and big shots too and from the different fields from the home offices in jets.
Click to expand...
I know a lot about that. :rofl:

Maybe they don't transport many of the workers by GA in OK but in more isolated areas they do.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Haha! Right on. Who do you drive for? If you don't mind me asking.
Click to expand...
If I told you I'd have to kill you, and everyone else here. :D

Actually I fly for a charter/management company but I'm assigned to a particular airplane owned by an oil and gas company. Not a household name, though.
 
Airports at Hereford and Dumas were extended for bigshots in their G5's.

Oil, wind, ethanol ....

I was up at Hereford last month. Not many G5's or anything turbine. Wind is dead, ethanol is dead, oil is dying.... cattle are doing good ... but no one in their right mind messes with cattle. :lol:
 
txflyer said:
I've sat in the front and it's no problem with the adjustable rudder pedals.

But essentially it's a single seat aircraft for me.
Click to expand...

??? Your S.O. is 6' 3" too? :confused:

If you fit in the front fine, the back seat is wide open. :wink2:
 
OkieFlyer said:
Other than pipeline operations, most of the oilfield GA is flying the engineers and big shots too and from the different fields from the home offices in jets. I don't see too many piston aircraft used in the oilfield. Other than that, they use helicopters for the seismic surveying before laying out a new field.
Click to expand...

There were at least a couple guys on this board flying back and forth. I used to when I worked the oil field, and I was just a boat captain, no big wig, and 2 other guys in the fleet flew in as well.
 
For our family of four..Declining income since 2009, higher food prices, higher property/health insurance prices, higher service prices, higher recreation/entertainment prices, higher utility prices and some tax increases= Less 100LL purchased. We are not alone.
 
EdFred said:
Maybe you need to actually read what I said in a previous post. No STC for my plane. And where am I going to get a 4 seat 1250lb useful load Experimental for under 60k?

And Mogas here is nowhere near $2.45 The closes airport with mogas is 30nm away and it's $4.75. And there's only 5 fields within 100nm that even have it.

Sometimes the amount of dumb I see on here astounds me.
Click to expand...

I buy my mogas from the station and haul it to the airport bypassing the money hungry FBO marking it up.

We are talking about why the sales of 100ll is down. I'm telling you a factor in the equation is due to more pilots are burning mogas. A recent POA poll confirmed that. Maybe if you contributed more here rather than troll, snipe, & ***** you would understand that. Seems you would rather take pot shots at people rather than actually contribute to a meaningful discussion.

Yep, the stupid around here is very thick.:rolleyes2:
 
Last edited:
OkieFlyer said:
Maybe you need to not get get your panties in a wad.

Why be a prick about it? A lot of people burn "precious" mogas. You can't, so big deal. We all know that some engines can't burn it, but there is a crap load of engines that can, and do. Why would that not be a contributor?
Click to expand...

You just can't fix stupid. ;)
 
Henning said:
There were at least a couple guys on this board flying back and forth. I used to when I worked the oil field, and I was just a boat captain, no big wig, and 2 other guys in the fleet flew in as well.
Click to expand...

I haven't observed a whole lot of GA activity associated with oil & gas in my area, at least not enough to make a large impact on overall avgas sales. I can't speak for the rest of the country though.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Can't we all just get along??? :dunno:
Click to expand...

I wish we could! I really do!

I'm not the one who started calling people stupid. :dunno:

With absolute certainty, one of the factors of the decline in 100ll sales is the rising use of mogas in aviation. With over a $3 per gallon difference in price who wouldn't look into using it? This is not a guess, or a hope, or a wish, this is an indisputable fact of aviation. To call it or the person who is reporting it "stupid" is is just plain silly. Then again I guess I should just consider the source. :rolleyes2:
 
Last edited:
Geico266 said:
I buy my mogas from the station and haul it to the airport bypassing the money hungry FBO marking it up.

We are talking about why the sales of 100ll is down. I'm telling you a factor in the equation is due to more pilots are burning mogas. A recent POA poll confirmed that. Maybe if you contributed more here rather than troll, snipe, & ***** you would understand that. Seems you would rather take pot shots at people rather than actually contribute to a meaningful discussion.


Yep, the stupid around here is very thick.:rolleyes2:
Click to expand...

Oh yes, because telling me to "do the math" is you implying how smart I am. Don't play the choir boy in this, and act like you never say anything negative. Maybe if you would actually read what people say before you start yelling out "RV!!! MOGAS!!!!". It might go a little ways. Instead, as expected we get your canned zombie response of mogas/rv as the solution to everything. Nevermind the fact that a lot of people can't use it. Like me, or Ted, or James, or Spike, or anyone else running a twin. But no, you immediately blurt out your tired mogas is the solution to everything crap and insinuate we are all stupid for not using i, but whine likke a little ***** when the tables are turned on you.

Here's a concept, read what someone posts, think about it before just yammering on about mogas and rvs, or telling us that it will be another 843 years before we have an August with 5 weekends.

Contributing to a discussion is more than just screaming RVS and Mogas. Oh and even if I wanted to haul it to the field, it's still not readily available or as cheap as you claim it is around here. So it is still a non-starter. But you never consider that.
 
OkieFlyer said:
The flight school here starting using mogas a few years back. That's about 30,000 gallons per year of Avgas not being used at one small airport.
Click to expand...

That's interesting, because IIRC MoGas cannot be used in "for hire" aircraft, which I assume includes rentals. I'm pretty certain that mine (Petersen) has that limitation but I couldn't find that verbiage on their website right now. Maybe I'm misremembering.

Edit: it looks like the only prohibition is part 135 carrying passengers for hire.
 
Last edited:
The first chart just shows that population growth is out pacing avgas sales. so all that is saying is Obama is letting more illegal aliens into the country or people are having more sex than getting pilots license.
This is a better chart since it does not skew the left hand. A stats professor had a whole day of showing how to make charts lie.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=c400000001&f=a

Basically there is 1/3 of the avgas sales as there was in 1984. But you will notice besides the peak in 2012 it has kind of leveled off around 600. The "steep decline" title is a bit alarmist.
 
yetti said:
A stats professor had a whole day of showing how to make charts lie.
Click to expand...
So, what are you trying to say? Maybe that my dad was right when he spewed one of his favorite mantras, "figures don't lie, but liars figure."

;)
 
yetti said:
This is the chart that George Mitchell should be really proud of. Texas has recovered from the heyday of the 1980s and surpassed production of back then.

http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MCRFPTX1&f=M
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, why does this chart represent something to be proud of?:dunno: All it represents is the accelerated depletion of finite natural resources, the vast majority of which will be converted to, and wasted as latent heat into the environment.

No great point of pride to be seen here.
 
Henning said:
Out of curiosity, why does this chart represent something to be proud of?:dunno: All it represents is the accelerated depletion of finite natural resources, the vast majority of which will be converted to, and wasted as latent heat into the environment.

No great point of pride to be seen here.
Click to expand...
but....think of the children and the smiles and giggles it provides. Countless hours of pleasure and excitement.....:yes:
 
Yep, I just looked at the chart myself on the EIA website. I'll betcha the decline in avgas mirrors the decline in new pilots, which mirrors the decline in GA aircraft production.
 
ahkahn said:
Yep, I just looked at the chart myself on the EIA website. I'll betcha the decline in avgas mirrors the decline in new pilots, which mirrors the decline in GA aircraft production.
Click to expand...

I think we have a winner!
 
Henning said:
Out of curiosity, why does this chart represent something to be proud of?:dunno: All it represents is the accelerated depletion of finite natural resources, the vast majority of which will be converted to, and wasted as latent heat into the environment.

No great point of pride to be seen here.
Click to expand...

Might as well use it up before we relocate to Pandora. Then we will be all about the Unobtanium ;)
 
I am auto gas STC'd, but I think there are only maybe two places in the whole State to get it.

Mogas is unobtanium in TX.

Otherwise, I'd burn the **** out of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top