The FoE claims that 70 percent of GA planes could switch to unleaded fuel without retrofitting.

That is a *CRAP* statement. I say that as an owner of an aircraft with an O-300-C Continental engine *with* the Unleaded Auto gas STC (Supplemental Type Certificate). There are a metric TON of GA aircraft with that STC and guess what? We can't do it. Know why? Because *ETHANOL* eats hell out of fittings and that STC was issued before the farm lobby got ethanol into our auto gas. But, hey, farmers need money too and isn't it a GRAND IDEA to make fuel out of food?

I've got no problem switching to unleaded auto fuel if you get the damned corn out of the gas. We pay a hell of a premium for that leaded fuel, btw, right now for self-service it's $4.25/gallon here and I burn 9 gallons an hour. A single "fill up" today costs me over $150.00. The first year I flew that airplane (2002), I could fill up for under $70.00 and I "filled up" at least twice a month. Think I'm doing that now? More like once every three months. Interestingly, my fuel today has more lead in it that it did a decade ago. Why? Because big oil decided they couldn't make enough money to justify creating the two types of leaded fuel used in GA aircraft (80 leaded and 100 Low Lead), so they stopped making 80 years ago (80 is what my engine was built to burn) and 80 actually had *less* lead than 100 Low Lead.

But this is a side show. The federal government has wanted to kill General Aviation at least since 9.11.2001 because they're afraid they can't control us effectively enough. I find the timing of this article HIGHLY suspect. After decades of trying, we FINALLY got Airman's Medical reform passed and the FAA is supposed to come up with new regs by January 2017 that are consistent with the Pilot's Bill of Rights which would allow us to fly without a Third Class medical - thereby increasing significantly the number of potential GA pilots qualified to fly old airplanes like mine. The regs for Third Class medicals have gotten ridiculous in the past five years. They kept coming up with "new disqualifying conditions" that permanently grounded some pilots and had f*ck all to do with safety. The new "sleep apnea" change and its reliance upon BMI for "diagnosis" is a case study in this lunacy. Worse, they kept the pilot population from ever going to see their physicians for fear they'd be diagnosed with one of the new idiotic disqualifying conditions. So, we got the House, Senate and *even* Bam-Bam to pass legislation to retire the Third Class medicals for the majority of "hobby pilots" like me. That bill says that even if the FAA doesn't come up with new regs a year from passage (7/15/2016) the FAA is prohibited from taking enforcement action against a pilot without a Third Class medical who abides by the text of the law. IOW, the FAA is *panicked* about how many people might be flying these old airplanes around. What to do? Come up with a BULLSHIT story about how the "lead is hurting the children" and send the entire fleet of affordable, small aircraft to the junk pile. That'll keep us out of the sky.