The pilot reported that, while on approach to land at the airport in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the Diamond DA20’s engine sputtered and had a complete loss of power.
He retracted the flaps to extend the glide distance, but was unable to make the runway. He then made an off-airport landing on a service road between two buildings. After landing the airplane veered left and hit a tree. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, left wing, and empennage.
The pilot further reported that, while conducting the preflight inspection, the fuel was at the bottom of the 1/2 mark on the Diamond wood dipstick and the gauge also reflected the fuel level. During the flight, he again checked the fuel gauge and noticed it was showing right above 1/4 tank.
The FAA inspector who examined the airplane reported that only about 16 ounces of fuel was drained from the airplane fuel system and no fuel leaks were identified.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s improper preflight fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion, a total loss of engine power, and impact with a tree during an off-airport landing.
This September 2019 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.
There is no Reg that says how much fuel you must land with. The Reg says you must plan a 30 minute reserve but you may consume it because of unseen issues. If you could not use it there would be no reason to have it.
re-read 91.151[a]. The 30 minutes is required on landing.
I beg to differ. “No person may begin a flight”. Why would you be required to carry fuel that in event things change from plan (stronger head winds) you could not burn into your reserve. No where does it say you must have 30 minutes on landing. It says you “may not begin a flight”.
Read the entire reg. and part [a].
Good luck flying with 30 minutes of fuel remaining, and using it….
IF a pilot lands with less than 30 minutes of fuel remaining, is she then in violation of the FAR? The answer is “No.”
Could be a “he,” too.
Credit to the female that actually understands FAR 91.@51a. All this other crap is smoke and mirrors to say “duh I really do not know”. I never said it is a good idea, hell I prefer an hour. Kind of like I never fly to VFR weather mins but it is legal.
JimH in CA is right on!
He may be right on on somethings but not on 30 minutes fuel to be legal.
Seems new pilots these days treat the plane like there cars. Thinking they can make it to the next gas station. LOL on that.
Poor Planning on the pilot part and Just plain stupidity On the pilot’s Error of fuel management.
Sorry to say, this is getting to Normal these days,,,.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that you’re not supposed to takeoff unless you have more than enough fuel to reach your Destination with a little bit left over. I always try to top off the tanks as part of my normal preflight. Aircraft won’t stay in the air without fuel so why wouldn’t you take as much of it as you can. Oh, right, you might have to leave that case of beer in the hanger.
Yes,…. The day , vfr regs are; enough fuel to fly to the destination and then 30 minutes of fuel remaining at cruise speed.
So, the IO-240 at economy cruise burns 5.3 gph, so the regs allow landing with 2.65 gallons..! For the DA-20 , with a 24 gal. tank, that’s 11% of the fuel, less than 1/8th on the gauge.
Would you drive your car and plan to arrive home with 30 minutes of fuel remaining ?
A 30 mpg car , cruising at 60 mph, would use fuel at 2 gallons per hour, so for ’30 minutes of fuel’, you’d have 1.0 gallon in the tank….I don’t think anyone would do that.
Can you tell me where you read such a general statement? Not in the Regis.
A “hanger” is what you use to hang up your shirts in the closet. A “hangar” is a building that you use to store an airplane.
Fuel gauges work fine if you know your gauges and what the quantity indication means, just like every other vehicle. Fords are usually more than indicated, GMs are usually less. Apparently his problem was time vs consumption rate….nothing new there. It was probably accurate at EMPTY though….lol.
And it seems he did fine handling the situation, up to the point of the cause not mentioned left turn.
Auto fuel gauge systems use a precision 5 vdc regulator to accurately show the fuel quantity, and have since the 1970’s.
Cessna, Piper and others just use the battery buss voltage, which will vary from 12.5 volts to 14.5 volts, which causes a large error in the displayed quantity.
Also, there is no damping in the electrical signal, so the gauge needle fluctuates a lot.
Some newer aircraft now use a precision voltage regulator for the fuel gauge system.
However, I couldn’t find any info on the DA-20.
Actually the several hundreds I’ve worked on were 3 volt. Haven’t ever noticed the voltage fluctuation on the several aircraft I’ve owned to be a perceptible issue and at any rate, time rules….unless a gauge drops from full to almost empty in a hour, in
which case time and fuel flow gauges are out the window and we’re landing.
another raise to our insurance rates!
It’s sad to see a low time pilot [60 hrs], crash an aircraft due to not understanding that aircraft fly for a certain number of hours, and to not use the fuel gauge[s], to determine the fuel/ time remaining.
He did stick the tank and reported that it was about 1/2 full, 12 gallons. The POH shows that the IO-240 will burn 5.3 to 6.0 gph, depending on the percent power used.
So, in 2-1/4 hours he flew, the engine used all the fuel, which was 5.3 gph…. as listed in the POH… ‘amazing’ how that works.!
I have a problem with vfr pilots using the 3.5 degree vasi/papi on final. 3.5 degrees is a 16:1 slope, which few aircraft can achieve in a engine-out glide.
Pilots need to be taught power off 180 landings , from the downwind. They will then understand that a 5 degree final is more likely to allow making the runway if the engine fails in the pattern.
Running out of fuel is bad enough, but not making the runway in the pattern is poor piloting/ flight instructing.
Is there documentation about using 5 degrees online? I would love to see more info on that.
The 5 degrees number equates to a 11:1 glide ratio, which most aircraft can do.
If you are doing a power off landing you will have to use a greater approach angle to maintain airspeed. so, on turning final the vasi/papi will show all ‘white’ lights.