youngpilot85
New Member
Ok, the story I am about to share with you guys actually happened to a good friend of mine, and I thought that the end result was an extremely harsh one. Would love a second opinion from you guys. No names will be given for obvious reasons...
The person involved was about to embark on a simple dual flight with one of his students to a towered field in order to give that student some experience in communicating with ATC. Well just like every other flight, the student was allowed to conduct the pre-flight with the instructor following up just as a precaution. The aircraft was tied on the ramp as always, giving the impression that the aircraft carried enough fuel for at least two more flights. Everything seemed normal including the fuel quantities, having not only inspected the fuel gauges, but the tanks themselves.
The takeoff and flight to the practice airport (not more than 20nm away) were both uneventful. It was not until about halfway back to the home based airport that the instructor realised that the fuel gauges were indicating barely above E, meaning that the gauges didn't show a true reading prior to departure. He then went on to take over the aircraft and radioed in to any aircraft in the pattern that he would possibly make a straight in approach due to the fact that they were low on fuel. The landing itself proved uneventful as well. Apparenly the chief pilot was around for the whole thing, and was pretty peeved about what happened.
Whoever flew the aircraft prior to that flight failed to accurately read the fuel gauges and take the aircraft directly to the pumps. As a result the line crew were unaware of what was going on, leading to the aircraft returning with only about 15 mnutes of flight time remaining. Well the instructor tried to explain the whole thing to the chief pilot, who himself only felt that this was poor judgement on the instructors part for taking off low on fuel, deciding to 'let him go'. Now let's be serious here. Which seasoned instructor, in his or her sane mind, would intentionally take off knowing they were low on fuel?
Personally I feel like the instructor did everything he was trained to do but was still slapped in the face by the one person who was put in a position to impart guidance and knowledge based on his own experiences with situations such as this one. Honestly I felt that he should have asked the instructor what he learned from this, discussed what could have possibly gone wrong, and then moved on to fly another day. That's what I believe a chief pilot who trully cares about his instructors would have done.
As the caption says, I would love your opinions on this one, including those of chief pilots. Last time I spoke with the guy, he is still searching for a more 'realistic' flight instructor job.
Thanks!!!!!!
YP
The person involved was about to embark on a simple dual flight with one of his students to a towered field in order to give that student some experience in communicating with ATC. Well just like every other flight, the student was allowed to conduct the pre-flight with the instructor following up just as a precaution. The aircraft was tied on the ramp as always, giving the impression that the aircraft carried enough fuel for at least two more flights. Everything seemed normal including the fuel quantities, having not only inspected the fuel gauges, but the tanks themselves.
The takeoff and flight to the practice airport (not more than 20nm away) were both uneventful. It was not until about halfway back to the home based airport that the instructor realised that the fuel gauges were indicating barely above E, meaning that the gauges didn't show a true reading prior to departure. He then went on to take over the aircraft and radioed in to any aircraft in the pattern that he would possibly make a straight in approach due to the fact that they were low on fuel. The landing itself proved uneventful as well. Apparenly the chief pilot was around for the whole thing, and was pretty peeved about what happened.
Whoever flew the aircraft prior to that flight failed to accurately read the fuel gauges and take the aircraft directly to the pumps. As a result the line crew were unaware of what was going on, leading to the aircraft returning with only about 15 mnutes of flight time remaining. Well the instructor tried to explain the whole thing to the chief pilot, who himself only felt that this was poor judgement on the instructors part for taking off low on fuel, deciding to 'let him go'. Now let's be serious here. Which seasoned instructor, in his or her sane mind, would intentionally take off knowing they were low on fuel?
Personally I feel like the instructor did everything he was trained to do but was still slapped in the face by the one person who was put in a position to impart guidance and knowledge based on his own experiences with situations such as this one. Honestly I felt that he should have asked the instructor what he learned from this, discussed what could have possibly gone wrong, and then moved on to fly another day. That's what I believe a chief pilot who trully cares about his instructors would have done.
As the caption says, I would love your opinions on this one, including those of chief pilots. Last time I spoke with the guy, he is still searching for a more 'realistic' flight instructor job.
Thanks!!!!!!
YP