march2023 - 23

absolutely preventable, " he says. " Nobody
sets out to misfuel an airplane, but
mistakes happen. And they can be
prevented with proper training and just
remembering what you've learned and
putting it into action. "
NATA misfueling prevention trainAccording
to NATA, key elements to
ing will continue to evolve as updates
are made in the industry. For instance,
Berry says updates can be expected
when the Energy Institute has a color
code for unleaded avgas; if there is a new
grade selective nozzle; and when there
is a fleetwide drop-in replacement 100
octane fuel.
" We'll keep up with the industry, try
to stay ahead of them as much as we
can, " he says. " When it comes to formalized
training, we have to wait for the
standards to be produced. "
MISFUELING PREVENTION
PROGRAM
The NATA Safety 1st General Aviation Misfueling
Prevention Program - along with videos,
alerts, fact sheets, templates, operational best
practices, and other valuable resources - are
available at www.preventmisfueling.com
COURSE OBJECTIVES
* Understand aircraft misfuelings and their
consequences.
* Learn the key elements to misfueling
prevention.
* Be introduced to
the misfueling risks
posed by
unleaded avgas.
You can
literally save
lives by
verifying the
fuel type
before you fuel
an aircraft.
- Steve Berry
In general, misfueling prevention is
not difficult, according to Berry. It comes
down to good communication between
the pilot and the refueling operator,
he explains.
misfueling prevention include complete
fuel orders; selective nozzle spouts; and
type and grade verification.
" Every fuel order, whether it's verbal
or written, needs to have the aircraft
registration (tail) number, the volume of
fuel, the type and grade of fuel, and then
the refueler just needs to confirm that
the placards at the fuel filler port match
the placards on the equipment you're dispensing
from. "
Berry also calls out the work of Keith
Clark, senior quality control and technical
rep at Phillips 66 and the Save a
Life - Verify Fuel Type campaign, which
encourages communication between
pilots and the FBO.
" It's that simple, " Berry says. " You can
literally save lives by verifying the fuel
type before you fuel an aircraft. "
To further safeguard against misfueling,
a pilot that requests UL94 needs
to have a supplemental type certificate
(STC) for engine and airframe.
" That's not the responsibility of the
line tech to know that really, " Berry says.
" It's up to the pilot to communicate the
fuel they want. But it is important that
the pilot have those placards (showing
fuel type) installed on the filler port.
That's part of the STC process. "
According to Berry, common mistakes
that lead to misfueling include a
lack of communication, distraction and
complacency.
" Really it comes down to human factors, "
he says.
While misfuelings can occur, he says
it's important to know humans get it
right most of the time. But he says 100
percent of misfuelings are preventable
and the consequences are unforgiving.
" Refueling is a serious job, " he says.
" We take it for granted because we do it
so often. If you fuel 10 airplanes a day,
you're fueling thousands of airplanes
over the course of your life. For the average
line service tech, maybe tens of thousands,
and we get it right nearly every
time. But lives have been lost because of
a simple preventable mistake. Safe a life.
Verify fuel type. Get it right every time.
You don't have a choice. "
March 2023 || AviationPros.com || 23
NATA
http://www.preventmisfueling.com http://www.AviationPros.com
march2023

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