The private pilot was conducting a personal cross-country flight. After takeoff, he switched to the left fuel tank for the cruise portion of the flight.
He added that, about five miles from the destination airport, he completed the Before Landing checklist, however he “failed to position the fuel selector to the both” position at that time, which “set the stage for fuel exhaustion.”
The engine subsequently lost power. He checked the fuel selector, found that it was still set to the left tank, and moved it to the right tank.
He subsequently executed a forced landing to an open area at the base of a hill near Millersburg, Ohio, during which the Cessna 175 hit a fence and sustained substantial damage to the firewall and right wing.
The pilot’s failure to move the fuel selector handle to the “both” position in accordance with the Before Landing checklist resulted in the loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
Probable cause: The pilot’s improper in-flight fuel management and his failure to switch the fuel selector to the “both” position in accordance with the Before Landing checklist, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
NTSB Identification: CEN17LA060
This December 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.
Learn from the misfortune of others
Sign up now to receive NTSB Accident Reports and GA news in your email inbox. Join 110,000+ fellow aviators.
It’s amazing how often this general scenario occurs. It is a similar theme where the pilot apparently is not paying any attention to a critical item. Checklists have all of the critical items, but in this case, he didn’t even get a checklist performed correctly. I’m glad GAN puts these reports in the newsletter – I hope the pilots susceptible to these errors get the message.
I fly a Cessna 175B . All the C175s have 52 gallon tanks and the ‘both’ position is normally used for all phases of flight, so, the aircraft has 5.5 hours of fuel at max. cruise airspeed.
I usually start the engine on the left tank, and taxi to the runup area on the right tank, only to be sure that it feeds fuel from each tank.
Before takeoff, I switch to ‘both’, and it stays there until shutdown.
This guy was 1/3 mile from the runway and couldn’t glide to it….bad piloting.!
Flying with one tank empty is very noticeable, with the right wing 150 pounds heavier than the left.!
There was only about 1,500 C175s built from 1958 to 1962. It’s sad to lose one of these unique aircraft.
Try flying a Cirrus where there is no BOTH selection. If you fly a plane with a header tank and a BOTH selection then your only task is to make sure there is equal amounts of fuel in each tank allt he time. You do that on the ground, not in the air.
I try to teach setting the fuel selector as desired at top of descent (TOD). Where GUMP is done is often too late altitude-wise to resolve a fuel tank selector issue.
For takeoff: “Flaps, Fuel, Trim” is the mantra.
-Flaps: Set for takeoff.
-Fuel: Desired fuel tank(s) selected, mixture set for density altitude or rich, if turbocharged, and boost/fuel pump(s) on, if required.
-Trim: Set for takeoff.
This has worked in every airplane I have flown. I once flew in a corporate jet with a friend who set his flaps for takeoff on the Before Start checklist (because they were already set for the preflight). We did some training and taxied back for takeoff after a landing. Flaps were not on the Before Takeoff checklist. Holding short, I did my mantra and discovered the flaps were up.
Flaps should ALWAYS be on the Before Takeoff checklist. This mantra saved us.