The Cessna 150L pilot reported that, before departure, she checked the fuel gauges and estimated that the fuel tanks were just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons of fuel. (The total fuel capacity was 26 gallons, of which 3.5 gallons were unusable.)
She was unable to measure the fuel because she had dropped the measuring stick into the fuel tank.
The flight departed the airport in Hopewell, Ala., and, about one hour, 15 minutes after departure and about 10 miles from the destination airport, the engine lost total power. She unsuccessfully tried to restart the engine and subsequently performed a forced landing to a field.
A post-accident examination revealed that the fuel tanks were not breached and that they contained a total of 1/2 gallon of fuel.
The pilot reported that, before departing the airport, she checked the weather, which indicated that wind aloft conditions were a left quartering headwind at 6 knots.
However, the wind aloft report from a station about 10 nautical miles from the accident indicated that the wind aloft conditions ranged from a quartering headwind of 10 to 35 knots depending on the altitude of flight, which increased the duration of the flight.
The pilot stated that the engine consumed about 4.4 to 5.6 gallons of fuel per hour, however, a review of the owner’s manual performance charts revealed that the engine could consume up to 7 gallons of fuel per hour.
Because of the headwind, the flight was one hour 15 minutes, which would have required up to 8.75 gallons of fuel; however, the pilot took off with about 6.5 to 8.5 gallons of usable fuel. It is likely the plane did not have enough fuel to reach the destination airport, and the engine lost total power as a result of fuel exhaustion.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted from the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection and preflight and inflight fuel planning that did not account for increased headwind.
NTSB Identification: ERA14LA048
This November 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Maybe if she had added some fuel it would have floated the measuring stick to where she could reach it as well. That’s what I would have done. Just saying 🙂
As I have said before, you can’t fix stupid.
This pilot is a dunce when it comes to simple arithmetic and obviously uninformed as to the worst case fuel burn scenario this airplane could experience based on information in the POH. With correct arithmetic and a worst case fuel burn it should have become obvious during the course of the flight that the fuel was at or very near minimum (3.5 gal. unusable). What did the fuel gauges show? Presumably the needles were bouncing off the empty indication. Duh! Not only was there not enough to make it to destination but under VFR rules there was not the required daytime 30 minute reserve.
Baking cookies would have saved a nice airplane !!!!
Seriously, John?!? Hey, the 1930’s called…they miss misogynists like you.
Just pondering your headline to this article…. “Fuel exhaustion brings down C-150”. Technically… GRAVITY brought down the C-150….. ignorance or stupidity allowed for a situation to develop that the PIC of that flight had to make certain decisions which resulted in the aircraft landing somewhere other than the intended plan.
One cannot legislate stupidity
I would prefer that news reporting organization state something like the following: Pilot in command makes decisions that cause an unintended landing. As a result, 25,000 dollars in damage occurred, Pilot may face FAA enforcement actions and Pilot has to explain the authorities, aircraft owner and family of pilots possible ignorance, stupidity and or lack of caring about being a safe aircraft operator at all times while exercising the privileges of being a holder of a FAA pilot certificate.
The real problem? The airspace between the ear drums of that pilot!
This person should be denied a pilot certificate, period. This is just plain, ” stupid”. Shes lucky she didn’t injure herself or worse..This is the kind of inconsiderate crap that gives GA a bad rap..!! sorry but that’s the truth..
This is yet another ‘stupid pilot trick’, wrecking a nice aircraft because the pilot didn’t add $40 in fuel.! Per the sectional, there are 5 airports along the route of flight, and I’m sure that more than one had fuel….no excuses.!
With unforecast headwinds, the pilot should have noted the time vs distance at the flight checkpoints. [ Don’t we plot checkpoints and calculate the time to reach them ? ].
This pilot needs some remedial instruction.
I just can not believe how many “pilots” don’t so a comprehensive pre-flight inspection.