The pilot had flown about three hours of a cross-country flight when he thought the Bellanca 17-30A was going to run out of fuel.
He could not find a runway nearby, so he elected to conduct a precautionary landing on a gravel road near Martinton, Illinois, before the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion.
During the landing the airplane exited the road and went into a ditch, substantially damaging the fuselage.
Post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that it contained about one hour of useable fuel.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s improper decision to conduct an off-field precautionary landing.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This June 2020 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.
Annual inspection only requires that the fuel gage reads empty when it is. Not when it gets there. That ought to tell ya something.
I know of several war bird pilots who own their own planes and they always say to ‘use the clock time’ for fuel consumption. ‘Never trust the gauges’. I have convinced myself of that as well.
Usually fuel related accidents are caused by misjudging the fuel negative quantity—and this guy misjudged the fuel positive quantity. A Guinness record, perhaps?
is he still insurable