ATC AUDIO of me making an emergency landing

jrh said:
To everybody talking about instructors verifying fuel...why not use the gauges in flight? Fuel checks don't have to be exclusively visual checks.

That's how I do it. One of the first checks I do after engine start is a look at the fuel quantity gauges. If they both read full, I don't worry about it. If less than full, I ask the pilot how many gallons of fuel we have. Notice I say "gallons" rather than if we simply have "enough."

I've never had a problem with this method. I can't visually double-check everything and I'm not going to try.
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You took the words out of my mouth.... Fuel gauges are manditory for a reason.... Make it a habbit to scan your engine instruments like a hawk.
 
jrh said:
To everybody talking about instructors verifying fuel...why not use the gauges in flight? Fuel checks don't have to be exclusively visual checks.
Click to expand...

I've never flown a piston with fuel gauges which I felt were reliable enough to depend on.
 
Congratulations! You were very professional in handling the emergency; I hope to keep my calm if this kind of thing happens to me. Your story will also help me avoid complacency in my own preflights (and even when I'm not PIC).

Thank you
 
Doug Taylor said:
I've never flown a piston with fuel gauges which I felt were reliable enough to depend on.
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:yeahthat: There is nothing like watching a 172 gauge bounce from full to empty every two seconds.... Which is it?!? Is it Full, or is it empty!:panic:
 
I checked and I got a few shots of that plane doing touch and go's at GTU a year ago. Way to keep it calm and professional man!
 
Menn80 said:
:yeahthat: There is nothing like watching a 172 gauge bounce from full to empty every two seconds.... Which is it?!? Is it Full, or is it empty!:panic:
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It's full of course! You saw it overflowing on the preflight, and have calculated 2.4 gallons have been burned. :D
 
Doug Taylor said:
I've never flown a piston with fuel gauges which I felt were reliable enough to depend on.
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Neither have I...at least not reliable *electric* gauges (the "float-type" gauges from vintage aircraft like my C-140, or some of the new LSAs are very accurate).

But it still gives you a pretty good idea of if the tanks are full or not. I've never flown a plane that indicates completely full as the tank runs dry.
 
At least you have a recording of the LAST time you'll have a fuel issue.

I had topped of everything but made an error in my math. I'd run the first two tanks dry for max range. I casually made a fuel stop thinking I had about 40 minutes fuel remaining. First hint of an issue, I was rolling out with the nose wheel off the ground and the engine quit. I got it restarted and taxied to the fuel island. I watch in horror as gallons sold on the pump went past my usable fuel. 75.0 usable, 79.0 purchased.
 
jrh said:
Neither have I...at least not reliable *electric* gauges (the "float-type" gauges from vintage aircraft like my C-140, or some of the new LSAs are very accurate).

But it still gives you a pretty good idea of if the tanks are full or not. I've never flown a plane that indicates completely full as the tank runs dry.
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Reminds me of the 65 yr old helo IP I was flying with in a new glass cockpit TH-1. Getting a "MISC MISCOMPARE" message inflight due to one of the PFDs not matching the EICAS fuel-wise.......as in, pretty far off.

And he habitually taps on the EICAS glass over the digital fuel readout. I love it!
 
stesta5074 said:
It's full of course! You saw it overflowing on the preflight, and have calculated 2.4 gallons have been burned. :D
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:yup:Overflowing on preflight, makes me think of filling an airplane at night when its -20 and then the next day it is 35 and its dripping out of the vent.
 
jrh said:
To everybody talking about instructors verifying fuel...why not use the gauges in flight? Fuel checks don't have to be exclusively visual checks.

That's how I do it. One of the first checks I do after engine start is a look at the fuel quantity gauges. If they both read full, I don't worry about it. If less than full, I ask the pilot how many gallons of fuel we have. Notice I say "gallons" rather than if we simply have "enough."

I've never had a problem with this method. I can't visually double-check everything and I'm not going to try.
Click to expand...


Fuel gauges only need to read accurate at "0" . . . sucks if they are reading "high" then all the sudden they read "accurate".. I visualy check . . . especialy now. . .a lot of the planes I fly while flight instructing are from the 80 and well, things just dont work the way they are suppose too!!!
 
MikeD said:
Well, there are times you may have to. So I wouldn't necessarily say Never x 4.
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Yeah, me either, but you are in the military

Different flight regimes--different people.

Translate that NEVER x 4 to Paranoid X 4.

Still, I am going to check if I can.

Cordially,

b.
 
WOW great job buddy. That's really an amazing story and as the others have said it took stones to tell the whole truth about it. My hat's off to you.
 
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It takes real courage to take responsibility for your mistake in that way that you have done. Job well done, sir.
 
Good Job, Jerry, even though you know you'll have to face the music, you kept cool and did what you had to do. I am so very glad we weren't waking up to worse news today and that you are still with us.

Bp244
 

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Quite a story.

It makes me think back to the many different kinds of instructors i have flown with-many great guys, but when i thought about it more-probably only a handful of them checked over me when i was a student with them.

But then again, it was the flight schools policy/practice that the planes were normally fueled up anyway before the next person took the plane.
 
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