The pilot reported that, during preflight preparations, he filled the Piper PA28’s fuel tanks to 50 gallons total onboard and planned to switch the fuel tanks at “+1 hour and +3 hours” during the flight. He added that he departed with the fuel selector on the right tank. One hour into the flight, he switched to the left fuel tank.
While descending to land at the airport in Sawyer, Michigan, 3 hours and 10 minutes into the flight, he set the mixture at full rich and turned the fuel pump on. The engine “immediately lost power” and the “RPMs fell to 1000-1200 and ran smooth until the engine quit,” he told investigators.
He then began an emergency checklist and began to troubleshoot, but to no avail. He navigated to an area to make an off-airport landing on a road. Upon landing, the right wing hit brush and weeds, the airplane veered right, and came to rest in a ditch.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing.
The pilot reported that each fuel tank contained 24 gallons of usable fuel and his estimated fuel burn was 10 gallons per hour.
The FAA inspector who examined the airplane reported that the fuel selector valve was set to the left fuel tank. Magnetos were found off, with no key in the ignition switch. The propeller and engine cowl showed minimal damage and no fuel was found in the engine fuel sump.
The left wing appeared undamaged with less than a quart of fuel remaining in the tank. The right wing exhibited extensive aft crushing damage to the outboard leading edge and the fuel line was crimped and broken by impact forces with no fuel remaining in the wing tank.
The airplane manufacturer’s pilot’s operating handbook provided information and guidance in a section titled “ENGINE POWER LOSS IN FLIGHT” which stated in part:
- Fuel selector: Switch to tank containing fuel
- Electric fuel pump: ON
- Mixture: RICH
- Carburetor heat: ON
- Engine gauges: Check for indication of cause of power loss
- Primer: Check locked. If no fuel pressure is indicated, check tank selector position to be sure it is on a tank containing fuel.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s improper fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation, a total loss of engine power, and an off-airport landing and impact with vegetation and a ditch. Contributing to the accident was the pilot’s failure to follow the Emergency Power Loss During Flight checklist.
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.
This was a gross mismanagement of the fuel. 1 hour on the right tank should have left 10-14 gallon in it.
Flying for 2.2 hours on the left tank, and leaning to a bit more than10 gph, ran that tank dry.
#1 on an engine stoppage is the switch tanks.!
Even though we know the fuel gauges are not very accurate, the left gauge would be showing ’empty’.
so, if the pilot was scanning all the instruments, as he should be doing, he would have seen the empty tank and switched to the right tank, with fuel in it.
So, more ‘stupid pilot tricks’. and another wrecked aircraft.
Engine failure drill, commit to memory!
Throttle full open, mixture rich, boost pump on (if equipped), switch tanks. If you fly an airplane with a BOTH position on the fuel selector you can delete the final item and maybe the last two.
But the key to not running out of fuel is to make sure you have enough to start with and that you know which tank it’s in when you need it, that’s the planning part you do when you’re not freaking out because the engine just quit.
The sequence is to switch tanks first then turn on the fuel pump. Activating the pump first when on a dry tank pulling more air into the engine could make things worse. Engine power can also be lost up high if the pilot forgets to lean in which case power is restored by leaning, not enriching.
10 gph at cruise after takeoff and climb. Average 12 gph? 15 mph possible.
Same narrative. All you need to do is change the pilots name. Stupidity lives among us. Simply follow rules and procedures. Is that too much to ask?