The flight instructor reported that he and the student pilot departed the short turf runway near Harrah, Oklahoma, with a low fuel load to practice landings at another airport.
The flight instructor planned to refuel midway through the flight but forgot to stop for fuel, despite observing that fuel quantity gauge indications were low during the flight.
While the Cessna 150E climbed out during a go-around, the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion.
The CFI made a forced landing and the airplane hit trees, sustaining substantial damage to both wings.
The student and CFI sustained minor injuries in the crash.
The flight instructor attributed the inflight fuel planning error to a lack of recent flight instructor experience and the distractions of a challenging training environment.
Probable Cause: The flight instructor’s inadequate inflight fuel planning that resulted in fuel exhaustion and a forced landing.
To download the final report. Click here. This will trigger a PDF download to your device.
This July 2022 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.
Until it happens to you. Yes, supposed to not happen, but !@$. Nothing like experience, and chances are that is one pilot who will never do that again.
Well that’s one way to teach a student the perils of fuel arrogance. Glad it was only a lesson learned and not a Cessna burned! Also, CFI should have certification revoked before the glide plain carried this one to the ground.
Inexcusable. The CFI can kiss his/her aviation career good bye. This will be a tough one to explain on an interview. I wouldn’t hire him/her. Reason: “Can’t maintain situational awareness in a low stress situation. Easily distracted”
I guess when the instructors wreck the last trainer, they can be Lyft drivers.
Like the song goes: “It’s a little too late to do the right thing now.” At least they both survived the ordeal.
The old adage of altitude above you and fuel behind you is still true. Not to mention old pilots and bold pilots but few old bold pilots!
They could have requested an emergency landing. I’m learning to get the ppl, but I believe i could have hit the ground before the trees.
Respectfully… please DO read the final accident report. In doing that reading you will find the incident airport was a private grass strip 1400′ in length. There was nobody from whom a request for an emergency landing could be made, nobody to grant permission, no time to talk on the radio. The engine failed on a go-around from a short grass strip, not a 10,000 foot airliner runway.
Please take a step back and look at this situation not through the lens of your experience gained through training at a large airport with long runways and an air traffic control facility but rather through the lens of a student pilot receiving short/soft field instruction at a private grass field 11 miles from the nearest airport capable of producing a weather report.
At that short grass strip every ounce of the gasping 150’s performance would have been needed. With a runway that short, the option of “land straight ahead” means land in the trees because there is no runway straight ahead – the runway is now behind you, even though you may only be a few feet above the trees.
I would strongly recommend that you print out the final report as well as this discussion and use that printed copy in the conduct of a thorough debrief with the oldest, wisest instructor you can find, then go fly with an instructor and practice some landings at a truly “small” airfield.
Your comments reflect an excess of confidence and a glaring need for a more complete education in operations away from the big urban airports.
My comments are not intended to insult but rather to provide an alarm bell to awaken you to an understanding of how incomplete is the present state of your training. We never stop learning – as a PPL student you are on the steepest portion of the learning curve, and, unfortunately, also at a point where you know just enough to be truly dangerous. Please use this discussion as a “teachable moment”.
Articulated very well, Mark. I am an IFR rated PPL with a little over 200 hrs and you are totally right about the need to keep learning. We all make mistakes during training and even after training but most of us are fortunate enough that it does not result in an accident or injury. A good pilot is always learning. Ed
It was a poor decision to fly an old C150 on a hot day, out of a 1,400 ft grass strip.
Per the C150 poh, the takeoff roll at 40 degC and 1,000 ft elevation is 970 ft,
Then add 15% for the grass strip, so now it’s 1,100 ft.
Add another 10% for an 1,800 hr engine, and it’s now 1,200 ft, just to get off the ground. NOT ACCEPTABLE.
This low time cfi with little recent flight experience should have never been allowed to fly the C150, let alone out of a too short strip.
And, the 10 gal of usable fuel would get the 2 hrs that they flew…poor planning, forgetting to add fuel.
I’m glad they walked away, hopefully much wiser on using the POH data.
Good points, except the accident didn’t occur while trying to take off. Getting off the ground safely from a 1,400’ grass strip was not the issue.
Read the NTSB Form 6120 in detail.
It occurred while attempting to LAND on a short field, with a TAILWIND, following “a couple of missed approaches”:
“After a couple of missed approaches, the engine began to sputter and we had difficulty climbing out of a missed approach. I took control and attempted a turn -back. Unfortunately, I was too fast (the tailwind didn’t help), and I elected to put in power and hope for enough altitude for one more turn-back. We climbed a little and the engine cut out.”
Well stated sir.
Inexcusable for any pilot, let alone a CFI !
The CFIs of today are not like the CFIs that taught 30 years ago.
Many are just out to gain hours at someone else expense.
If you are a student and something doesn’t seem right, like the CFI is texting when you are paying the bill, return to the airport and look for another instructor.
I often depart for local flights with a low fuel load. Partly that’s because if for some reason I decided to take passengers up, I can’t have a full load of fuel and fill the seats with full size people. But I first stick the tanks so that I know for sure what I’ve got, and then I monitor the fuel usage during the flight. In earlier times, I know I cut things a little close at times, but with age comes at least a little wisdom. It’s true: there is no excuse for running out of gas.
As a CFI he of all people should know that fuel is measured in time when in the aircraft although purchased by the gallon/liter. So first thing when getting to the airport with the longer runway, land and put time in the tank(s).
Not just flight instructors but any pilot, including Student pilots.
There is no excuse for this or any other “ran out of gas” accident!
I agree 100%