The purpose of the flight was to reposition the Aerostar 601 to another airport for refuelling.
During the preflight, he reported the airplane’s two fuel gauges read “low,” but the supplemental electronic fuel totalizer displayed 55 total gallons.
He added it is not feasible to visual check the fuel quantity, because the fueling ports are near the wingtips and the fuel quantity cannot be measured with any “external measuring device.”
According to the pilot, his planned flight was 20 minutes and the fuel quantity, as indicated by the fuel totalizer, was sufficient.
About 12 nautical miles from the destination airport, both engines began to “surge” and subsequently lost power.
During the forced landing near Carrollton, Georgia, the pilot deviated to land in grass between a highway. The plane touched down hard and the landing gear collapsed.
The fuselage and both wings sustained substantial damage.
The pilot reported in the National Transportation Safety Board Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident Report that there was a “disparity” between the actual fuel quantity and the fuel quantity set in the electronic fuel totalizer.
He further reported that a few days before the accident, he set the total fuel totalizer quantity to full after refueling, but in hindsight, he did not believe the fuel tanks were actually full because the wings may not have been level during the fueling.
The “Preflight” chapter within the operating manual for the fuel totalizer in part states: “Digiflo-L is a fuel flow measuring system and NOT a quantity-sensing device. A visual inspection and positive determination of the usable fuel in the fuel tanks is a necessity. Therefore, it is imperative that the determined available usable fuel be manually entered into the system.”
Probable cause: The pilot’s failure to verify the usable fuel in the fuel tanks, which resulted in an inaccurate fuel totalizer setting during preflight, fuel exhaustion, and a total loss of engine power.
NTSB Identification: GAA17CA032
This October 2016 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.
Fuel gauges read low? When an aircraft is topped off, you will know exactly how much fuel was put into the tanks so after a simple subtraction from full capacity, the fuel gauge indications before the fueling can be correlated to actual gallons. It’s is no guarantee, but it would be a big red flag if the indications for a subsequent flight were below those expected. It is also another report where the beginning value for the totalizer was inaccurate. In a model where the fuel cannot be viewed or measured, it would help to have two others ways to check.
You run out of fuel you did something wrong. If you don’t have tank sensors then you must visually check the level. Saying it’s not feasible to visually check says the aircraft is not airworthy…is that what this guy really means? If he doesn’t know how to visually check he better find out before he runs out in IMC or worse and has no way to find a field or a road.
The Aerostar has fuel fill towards the end of the wing and all the fuel flows inward. There is not a great way to check this. They are also know for having gear issues that lets one side of the plane set lower than the other. The airplane should be leveled before fueling and fueling should be done by alternating between wings to allow the plane to maintain its level stance! The fuel gauges should never be trusted the best way is to keep track of fuel burn and hours flown!