This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
After several days in the area, I left my Cessna 170 with the FBO with instructions to top off. When I returned, I asked for the bill and asked how many gallons the plane had taken. They said 33 gallons. I asked for them to check again. That seemed like a lot as I always plan to have 10 gallons left on landing and my records said I had only flown 3.5 hours on the tank (usually at 7.5-8 gph).
I preflighted the aircraft, checked that fuel caps were on right, tested fuel, and looked at the gauges in the wings — it seemed like they overfilled as the gauge was past the F mark.
Takeoff was uneventful to VFR on top and headed home expecting about 2 hours 20 minutes en route.
I decided along the way to change my normal route from crossing on the west side of ZZZ2 Bravo because Approach seemed really busy lately and an east transition would make the load for them less, so as I approached ZZZ3, I turned to ZZZ4 and followed the route along the mountain east of the valley.
I could not get a Class Bravo clearance as I expected, so while at 6,500, I saw I could hold that until I reached the north end of Bravo. I was about to begin descending to 4,500 when the engine went to idle. I quickly checked the controls and fuel selector and looked at engine gauges. Saw no issues other than the RPM at idle.
While over the reservoir, I banked left to head towards known airports (I was based at ZZZ5 for 20 years and knew the area.) Then I told Tracon that the engine was out. They advised either ZZZ6 or ZZZ5. I told them ForeFlight showed ZZZ5 was near the edge of my glide range and I was on my way.
They asked for souls and fuel and I reported with one and likely 26 gallons based on flight time. I trimmed the plane all the way back to best glide and was transferred to Tower. I told them my intentions and gave them my home phone number in case.
That just left me with the job of flying as I was cleared to land (anyplace) on Runway XXR. Good winds and nice glide left me at the end of Runway XXR very high, so used the 360 we are trained to use as part of our commercial training and then with a modest slip was able to place the plane on the runway with enough kinetic energy to coast onto the first taxiway.
I was greeted by fire engines and operations. Tower asked if I could move the plane and I said only if I pushed it…They said just stay there. After a tow to the FBO, we looked for the reasons for fuel exhaustion as primary cause. The gauges looked like fuel (seemed weird) but visual examination proved the tanks were empty.
Knowing I started full less than two hours before, we added fuel and searched for the leak. NONE.
I called the FBO in ZZZ and told them what happened — their investigation determined they fueled the wrong plane!
My examination of gauges (where E and F are next to each other) obviously is not enough. Nor is my timing my fueling unless I watch it go in the tanks.
Future pre-flights will include finding a ladder to visually make sure the fuel got into my plane.
I continued home, did a short flight to ZZZ7 to make sure the plane really had no issues and filled the tanks (I watched). As I left the airport, I think I was still shaken a bit.
Primary Problem: Human Factors
ACN: 2119793
Canucks had a similar gauge ‘problem’
with a 757.
Remember the ‘Gimli Glider’.
Bet they still don’t stick their tanx though!
Yeah, English to mertic conversions can also cause a ‘miss fueling’ problem. Especially when it results in less fuel than requested, and required..!!
It’s interesting that we measure avgas in gallons, but usually measure jeta in pounds for commercial jets.!?
Except that at GA airports, jeta is also in gallons.
So, my 52 gallons of avgas is 312 pounds, more or less, depending on temperature.
[ about 310 lb at 100 degF ].
Heck, my passengers lie more about their weight..!!
The comments on here resemble an entire village getting together to stone this guy to death. I’m glad the outcome was a good one and he’s alive to tell the tale. This is proof positive that aviators aren’t always the nicest of people.
We are mostly nice people, but are critical of pilots doing stupid things. In this case it was multiple stupid things, especially for an experienced pilot.
The pilot in reviewing and commenting on these situations is to learn from them and not do them ourselves.
We wont live long enough to make all the possible mistakes.
These stories are much like the EAA IMC/VMC Club scenarios…with the video ending with ..’ what would you do ?’ .and there is a lively discussion on what the pilot should do next.
For the life of me I don’t understand this, he was negligent in the operation of an aircraft but since all ended well is OK?.
Every airplane I have owned and flown over the past 30 plus years has a walk around checklist and contained within is an item calling for VISUAL FUEL VERIFICATION. No matter where he was, if his plane was high wing and was fueled, there is a stair that was used to fuel it, so he can borrow it and CHECK the fuel level before taking off. And if I recall correctly from my training days, Cessnas have an area around the nose and strut that allows you to quickly step up over the wing and complete this item.
What would you be saying if instead he had fallen out of the sky due to fuel starvation, killed himself, a passenger, and perhaps an innocent on the ground? Would you be justifying his “mistake” and complaining about how mean other aviators that rightfully criticize his actions are such mean people? A mistake is forgetting to pack your toothbrush for a trip, or realizing you left the light in your hangar on one hour into your flight. Not visually verifying your fuel levels before departing means you did cut corners during your preflight inspection; that is NOT a mistake, that is a choice.
Flying is a privilege not a right. Flying, while fun, is a serious endeavor with potentially deadly risks associated with it. As PICs we are responsible to anticipate, identify and mitigate as many of those risks as possible before and during flight with sound aeronautical decision making. That encompasses among others, proper aircraft maintenance, maintaining your proficient, checking weather and doing proper fuel planning for all flights, and yes, doing a complete preflight inspection to assure everything you can check is satisfactory before embarking on the trip.
If pointing a bad decision and criticizing the pilot for his/her lack of responsibility and due diligence before a flight makes me a not always nice aviator, then so be it.
Refueling (and gauge) accuracy should routinely be checked by verifying that the amount added (to include receipt for gallons of the correct type of fuel added to the correct aircraft), plus inbound fuel level, as recorded at shutdown, agrees with the current fuel level indication.
For 35 years I’ve flown single seat experimental aircraft that I built. No one touches my airplane except the electronic shop to certify the instruments.
Back in our Cardinal days we carried a light weight aluminum step ladder in the baggage compartment. Took up some space but we couldn’t carry the displaced luggage weight anyhow. Of all my dumb pilot tricks performed or yet to come, I can’t imagine taking off without looking into or sticking my tanks ever being one of them.
Some years back I was in the position of having money but no time (instead of the reverse) and asked the local FBO to remove a low cylinder and I’d take it to the engine shop for refurb.
They handed me a box with a cylinder in it, and I thought to myself that the cylinder didn’t look familiar but I figured that since I had never had it off and it was usually covered with baffles and shrouding, it was OK. Took it to the engine shop, they called a couple of days later and said it needs (long list). Go ahead and do it.
Next weekend I go out to the airport and there’s a guy jumping up and down, yelling, cursing, ranting, raving, some SOB stole a ******* cylinder off my ****** airplane!!!!!! (Yeah, he was HOT.)
I make it a policy not to hang around war zones so I stayed away from him until I noticed that MY airplane hadn’t been touched and still had all four cylinders on it. Ummm, yeah.
Quick conference with the FBO revealed that despite the completely different 12″ N numbers painted on the fuselage and written on the work order, they’d pulled the cylinder off the wrong airplane . . .
He got a free cylinder overhaul with free R&R. I decided to have my work done elsewhere.
Now go ahead and ask me why I trust NOBODY to work on my airplane.
Some years back I was in the position of having money but no time (instead of the reverse) and asked the local FBO to remove a low cylinder and I’d take it to the engine shop for refurb.
They handed me a box with a cylinder in it, and I thought to myself that the cylinder didn’t look familiar but I figured that since I had never had it off and it was usually covered with baffles and shrouding, it was OK. Took it to the engine shop, they called a couple of days later and said it needs (long list). Go ahead and do it.
Next weekend I go out to the airport and there’s a guy jumping up and down, yelling, cursing, ranting, raving, some SOB stole a ******* cylinder off my ****** airplane!!!!!! (Yeah, he was HOT.)
I make it a policy not to hang around war zones so I stayed away from him until I noticed that MY airplane hadn’t been touched and still had all four cylinders on it. Ummm, yeah.
Quick conference with the FBO revealed that despite the completely different 12″ N numbers painted on the fuselage and written on the work order, they’d pulled the cylinder off the wrong airplane . . .
He got a free cylinder overhaul with free R&R. I decided to have my work done elsewhere.
Now go ahead and ask me why I trust NOBODY to work on my airplane.
If I don’t fuel myself, I watch the FBO do it from when the truck pulls up to when it leaves.
With that, after the FBO fill up, I twist the fuel caps a second time myself to be sure they are secure.
Yeah. Lots of good advice here.
Bottom line, either tell the FBO you’ll put in a fuel order when you return…and observe the process, place the order before you leave…and observe it, or self serve.
Here endeth the lesson…..and let’s all be
thankful, on this Thanksgiving eve, that he kept his head and could walk away…and reuse the airplane.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Has flight training changed so much in the last decades? I remember as a young student pilot my CFI drilled into my head to ALWAYS check each fuel drain for water and contaminants AND VISUALLY VERIFY fuel level on each tank as part of a normal pre-flight. Is that not being taught anymore?
Regardless of his familiarity (or lack thereof) with the airplane or how many hours he may have on his logbook, not performing a FULL pre-flight inspection, including testing and visual verification of fuel levels, before flying is in my opinion criminal negligence. Not only is he placing himself at risk, but also his passengers–that trust him to be a good pilot–or the innocent bystander on the ground that happens to be at the wrong place and time during his crash. None of the latter two are guilty and should not become victims of the PICs stupidity.
Let’s call things by the proper name; the pilot that cuts corners on the pre-flight (or maintenance, checklists, proper weather briefing, flight/fuel planning, etc.) is not the victim, is just plain stupid, irresponsible and a negligent person that reflects poorly upon the aviation community in general!
I’m assuming that this pilot is new to the aircraft, apparently not knowing that the
Scott fuel gauges in the wing roots are mechanical. He reported ‘weird’ readings, which could mean corrosion causing the shafts and gears to stick. Also that original cork float can absorb fuel and indicate incorrectly.
But, with the fuel receipt, he should have noted that the tail number was NOT his, and he did note the excessive amount of fuel delivered..!!
He would have then asked to fuel his aircraft.
More stupid pilot tricks…but he survived and the aircraft is ok.
“I’m assuming that this pilot is new to the aircraft, apparently not knowing that the
Scott fuel gauges in the wing roots are mechanical.”
Nope.
A 2,000+ hour CFI with 1,300 hours C-170 time.
Really ? This guy was acting like a 50 hr new pilot.!!
Always watch someone fueling your plane and visually check inside the filler caps or dipstick the tanks to verify.
We were traveling one time, in an FBO looking at the ramp. Lineman pulled up to a turboprop with the 100 LL truck and got his ladder and hose out. Wasn’t our plane, but we alerted their front desk and they radioed out to their truck to confirm right plane/fuel. Someone was about 1 min away from getting the wrong kind of fuel. The pilot’s/owner were nowhere to be seen. Another reason to watch all fueling operations or do it yourself.
As an A&P I am painfully aware that instruments – especially, older fuel level indicators are notoriously unreliable and only indicate ‘approximate’ levels.
As a pilot I have never done my pre-flight without opening the caps to one, visually verify fuel and their approximate level compared to gauges and two, to confirm the caps fit and close as they are supposed to.
With most things in aviation the Reagan adage is applicable… “Trust but verify”.
If I don’t fuel it I watch the lineman do it and I cap it. Never believe the gauges. If you checked the caps why didn’t you look in? Good outcome.
I have always either fueled the airplane myself or stayed to watch the line person do it. If a line person did it, I always checked the level before securing the caps myself. I can’t imagine trusting someone else to get it right.
I recently had the FBO fuel my plane and on my preflight I noticed one of the fuel caps was not lined up correctly. I ask the FBO to come back out to the plane and bring me a ladder. the employee place the ladder himself but I asked to climb it. the pilot fuel cap was not on correctly. I climbed down the ladder and asked him to check it. He told me it was not his responsibility to confirm the fuel caps position and that I should have bothered him with this. From now on I will always inspect my fuel caps.
When I was seven years old, my father owned a C-170. We flew everywhere in Texas. It was fun!
One day, dad checked the fuel gauges and they appeared to read full. But as you said, F and E are very close on the circular fuel gauges. He assumed the tanks were full and took off. After the engine quit, he landed on a highway with a dead engine. We parked the plane in an abandoned driveway and hitched a ride back to town. We brought fuel back to the plane. The engine fired right up and we flew back home. We were lucky!
Since that event, dad always drug out the ladder and VISUALLY checked each tank and measured the level with a wooden dowel before taking off.
I am and old cheap bastard and I will never pay to have someone fuel my airplane…..well maybe I did once.
I’ve had others fuel me, but I was (literally) within inches of the filler while they performed their task.
Always self fuel!
I understood that it is the PPLs duty to always supervise the refueling therefore i always do this [600 hour CAA PPL]