ALCOHOL FUEL RETURNS TO OSKOSH
Mother's traveling ethanol fuel crew continues to spread the word about homegrown power.
November/December 1980
By the Mother Earth News editors
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The types and varities of aircraft on display provided quite a show
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Our traveling ethanol fuel crew continues to spread the word about homegrown power!
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Most folks' thoughts are turning to visions of winter woolens and turkey fixings at this time of year . . . but here in Hendersonville, North Carolina we're still humming with news about the touring summer seminars!
Last spring — as regular readers of this magazine will remember — all MOTHER's staffers were so pleased with the success of the first two trips of the traveling alcohol fuel seminars that they began enthusiastically mapping out a third series of road shows (see issue 63, page 38). And, throughout the hot summer months, the alcohol crew was presenting away-from-home demonstrations ... first, in June, on a southern circuit (covering North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) and then northward in Maryland and Pennsylvania during July.
But the seminar team didn't slow down even after that two-month tour . . . nor did its members confine themselves to converting only "earthbound" vehicles to run on ethanol! Instead, the crew kept right on trekking north ... to take a look at the world's largest aviation event: the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual Fly-In, held at Wittman Field in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
MOTHER's staffers had attended the Fly-In last year (see MOTHER NO. 60, page 99) and had further stretched their wings at the "Oshkosh of the East" held in the small Tennessee city of Tullahoma (No. 61, page 26). So, with the experience of two aviation events behind them, MOM's crew immediately accepted the EAA's invitation to attend this year's August 2 - 9 gathering . . . which drew nearly half a million experimental aircraft enthusiasts as well as more than 10,000 airplanes.
Soon after arriving on the scene, MOTHER's alcohol experts had an ethanol-fueled ultralight aircraft flying with the best of the sport planes ... while our other two alcohol-powered transporters — a new dual-fueled (ethanol or gasoline) Chevy van and our "old reliable" Ford pickup — offered onlookers a chance for some close-up inspection.
But MOTHER's researchers weren't the only ones at the 1980 Fly-In who were piloting vehicles powered by renewable fuel. Paul Poberezny (the EAA's "chief") was there to greet us with his "Pober Pixie" airplane, which had been converted to ethanol the previous summer.
And, towering over the tents and the hubbub of our car and aircraft exhibitions, MOTHER's 15-foot, six-inch column distillery made an impressive silhouette against the clear Wisconsin skyline (our three-inch column still was on display as well). In fact, the milling crowds of alcohol fuel enthusiasts soon created enough excitement on the ground to rival the action taking place in the air!
