The pilot reported that, during a cross-country flight, he was concerned with the Alon A2’s low fuel status and determined he would not have enough fuel to continue to the intended destination.
He looked for a place to land. While approaching a small valley near Frazier Park, California, he noticed a private, 25-foot-wide airstrip and opted to perform a precautionary landing.
He circled the airstrip. While on the approach and trying to keep the airspeed as slow as possible, the airplane stalled.
The left wing collided with the ground and was substantially damaged. The pilot sustained serious injuries in the crash.
Probable Cause: The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while on approach for landing which, resulted in an aerodynamic stall and collision with terrain.
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This November 2021 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.
The pilot may not have had serious injury if he had a 4 -point harness vs a ‘lap belt’…
And, maybe installing some fuel gauges and an electric secondary fuel pump would have minimized the possibility of running low on fuel when the mechanical pump fails.
Basically, to avoid crashing after the plane ran out of fuel, he crashed while he still had fuel in the tank.
Sounds like he was too tight and slow over thinking a 25 ft wide runway. At this point and a precautionary landing the fuel wouldn’t have been an issue.
True. The Ercoupe designers limited the travel of the elevator to avoid stalls an advertised it that way. As you slow, the descent rate increases greatly and, if low on approach, there is not enough power available to recover or even lessen the descent rate. I am surprised the pilot wasn’t aware of that condition.
For the lack of a few gallons of gas, we destroy an Ercoupe. Totally and completely preventable.
I did not think Ercoupe could stall?????
It doesn’t stall, really. But it has a glide ratio of a Steinway if you get too slow.
As for running out of fuel… if you know how much gas you’re starting off with, there’s no reason to ever run out. Even if the fuel pump fails, most Ercoupes/Alons have a six gallon header tank. That’s an hour’s worth of flying time. The float gauge is right there in front of your face just outside the windscreen. The float should be part of your frequent instrument scan. When it starts going down, you start considering your options.
I consider the header tank strictly “reserve” fuel. The three plus hours I get on the 18 gallons in the wings is plenty for one hop.
From what I read of the NTSB reports, he noticed that the tank was losing level and so thought he had a problem with fuel transfer from wing tanks to center/header tank. So he was making a precautionary landing. He was not out of fuel. Given that he had filled the tanks, he had not flown long enough to get in a low fuel situation.
Since I know nothing about this plane, I don’t know if he had a fuel pump problem in getting fuel from the wing tanks to the header/center tank. The point is, he wasn’t out of fuel, but was afraid he’d get into a situation where he had to land and things would not go well. What he feared most apparently caught him.