I read at one time, that the biggest danger for children in old houses, is them actually putting their mouth on the paint or rubbing it with their hands and putting their hands in their mouth. You know how small children can be.

In Boston, during home renovation, they have an elaborate process that is required. They cover the house and have some sort of ventilation system while the workers completely strip all paint below about five feet from the floor.

You are very wise for paying close attention to this issue with your children.

Do you care to backup this claim with facts?

I don't have a breakdown of how many GA aircraft are jets. It would be interesting to know. Obviously it is not a large percentage.

Whatever the remaining number of the 200,000 or so small aircraft is piston engine, their use still represents a tiny fraction of a percent of all the gasoline burned in this country.

To begin with, of all those planes registered, MANY of them are sitting in hangars or outside all over the place and haven't been flown in years. Of the ones that are in fact in annual, and flown, the average pilot flies less than 100 hours per year, many pilots fly a LOT less than 100 hours.

With most GA planes using less than 10 gallons per hour, and a big chunk of that number actually using 6 or less, you are taking about a drop in the bucket compared to the gasoline burned by other vehicles.

Of the GA planes that are current and flown regularly, many of them have Mogas STC's and don't even burn 100LL. Also the LL stands for LOW lead. It is not even close to the amount of lead that was used in car gas back before 1975.

This tiny fraction of gasoline that is burned in these few aircraft, is scattered across the entire US sky. Trying to measure the result in parts per million would be ridiculous. If it COULD be measured it would have to be in parts per gazillion if you didn't want LOTS of zeros to the right of the decimal point.

The whole claim is ridiculous. There is a lot going on surrounding this issue, and there likely will be no more 100LL within the next few years. That means that there will be a decrease in reliability of small aircraft engines. In all likelihood, this will result in a few dead pilots and passengers. That will probably make a few folks very happy.

I fly in them and ride a motorcycle every day. no worries here, just pointing out that GA is way different than transport category flying....

Unleaded avgas is on the near horizon soon. EPA/FAA, etc and industry are working on changing that in the next few years.

many, many GA planes now have STCs (Supplemental type certificates) that allow the use of unleaded gas to be used. Most owners do it for cost savings. Almost every FBO has an unleaded pump.

from what i can find avgas 100/130 has 4 grams of lead per gallon.at this rate that would come out to a minimum of 56,000 gallons per day.thats alot of gas.and i doubt these planes are just circling the airport in a holding pattern all day.so that would mean they would have to sell that much more gas.take my dads old cessna 170.for us to take off and hit that 1 mile make,and from that 1 mile make to land i doubt we used a gallon maybe 2 at the very most then we were gone,so the other 40 gallons or so we used elsewhere.that sounds like one busy airport by any stretch of the imagination.

Just to help put this in perspective.

Addison airport in the North Dallas area at one time was the busiest GA airport in the world, but I don't think that is now the case. Anyway, it is a BUSY airport. It averages 267 take offs per day.

My little airport is more typical and it averages 109 per WEEK.

If I understood what you wrote, I am shocked that there is 56,000 gallons sold per day. It SOUNDS like that is including Jet A, which of course has no lead. Even if it is correct, 56,000 gallons a day is indeed a SMALL DROP in the bucket compared to the road vehicle gasoline sold every day.

There are about 4,000 airports in the US, so if it is correct that is only 14 gallons per day, per airport. That would sound like a feasible number, given that most airports are sleepy little places that aren't even manned. No tower, no one on field to sell gas, only a self service pump at most of them.

Better pack a lunch:

Workers Facing Charges After Shoddy Airplane Repairs « CBS Sacramento

Plane crashes into Washington flat - YouTube

small airplane shoddy maintenance - Google Search

I do get that most accidents are the result of pilot error.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

This is rich, by the way. The only reason a person might criticize small planes is because they're cowardly?

I also avoid snowmobile racing, especially the track variety. Oh boy, what a thrill that would be to have a snowmobile land on you. Pragmatism moves me to avoid a number of adrenaline rush experiences. I've often thought that skydiving would be pretty wild but have concluded that it's just too much of a cheap thrill. I go for semi-rugged mountain climbing instead. Not the oxygen supported snow and ice variety, rather 9 or 10 K altitude fair weather climbs. I'm not nuts.

__________________
1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

There will ALWAYS be isolated instances for anything. You originally wrote it as if the practice was widespread. It is NOT. The vast majority of AP's and IA's who sign off on aircraft maintenance and repair are SERIOUS about the responsibility. MOST of them understand full well that peoples lives are in their hands.

We're not talking about air-racing here which would be an apt comparison to snowmobile racing or motocross.

Unlimited-class air-racing = insanity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntVBN0W3fpA

Mark these words, shall we?

Not sure if Weco did GA repair work....but yes, there is always a probability that repair and maintenance is not done correctly, esp in planes not flow for profit.

Don't step on the choppers. They are most like Police choppers making sure you and your family are safe.