Yet another bizarre story

[bob loblaw]

It's understandable because inexperienced pilots get overwhelmed and distracted easier than experienced pilots do. I never said it was acceptable, I just said that I can understand better how it could happen. Doug mentioned getting caught up in the minutia of flight planning and therefore he didn't see the big picture of just how long he had been in the air. I can picture a young pilot making a mistake like that.

Nobody plans to run out of fuel. It usually happens because the pilot is preoccupied with something. Inexperienced pilots are more prone to becoming preoccupied. That's all I'm saying.

Distractions, this is a big theme that the FAA is addressing during checkrides. In my opinion the only excuses a pilot can make for running out of fuel is a fuel system blockage or a uncontrolled fuel leak, although uncontrolled fuel leaks rarely happen. The most common form of fuel exhaustion is simply running the tank dry. A fuel blockage is more of a stravation issue but starvation is different than exhaustion. There is zero excuses for running a tank dry, but I also understand the lapse in judgement it takes to do this.

 

[derg]

How much experience did you have at the time? Not to say I'd completely excuse a fuel exhaustion incident by a low time private pilot, but it's at least a little more understandable.

I had maybe 150 or so hours so a low-time private pilot.

Fuel exhaustion can happen to anyone, it's not really all that hard.

The reason it can happen to anyone is guys like me, now, with maybe 8 or 9,000 hours can easily get complacent.

 

[SteveC]

A fuel blockage is more of a stravation issue but starvation is different than exhaustion.

I had a fuel selector hung up between the aux tank and main tank positions one time. About 3 seconds later it got very quiet on that side of the plane.

There is zero excuses for running a tank dry, but I also understand the lapse in judgement it takes to do this.

I often run tanks dry doing long distance flights (preferebly only when carrying boxes, not pax ).

 

[bob loblaw]

I had a fuel selector hung up between the aux tank and main tank positions one time. About 3 seconds later it got very quiet on that side of the plane.
I often run tanks dry doing long distance flights (preferebly only when carrying boxes, not pax ).

The danger of running a tank dry ( to me that is going beyond the usable fuel and the engine sputters) is you increase the chance of introducing any sedement that is in the fuel tank into the fuel line. Sedement can easily cause a blockage and lead to a fuel starvation accident, even after topping the tanks off. Going beyond the usable fuel in a tank is not recommended.

 

[derg]

I'm still waiting for Pilot602 to tell us what he thinks about 210 pilots!

 

[aloft]

In the age of GPS, there's no excuse for not recognizing unanticipated headwinds. If you expected a groundspeed of 130 kts and your GPS shows you're only getting 95.....

 

[derg]

I'm old skool!

I think I was lucky to have a second VOR in the aircraft.

 

[Ophir]

you know what is classic in this incident is the truck he hit. Check out the video again and you will see this is an emergency vehicle that has its lights on. I am imagininig it was there in case something happened. So, working it backwards, they put this thing in the way in the first place! WOW

 

[TheShortOne]

That guy is a moron... Just take it out on the truck and don't worry about the "scratches" look what he got himself into now!

<offtopic> a gal i work with told us her 2 year old son drew a picture for daddy on the side of his truck with a rock. daddy almost threw the son out the window cause it was brand new!"

 

[Philip]

I'm old skool!

I think I was lucky to have a second VOR in the aircraft.

for my private, me too. And the one I DID have was a twitchy sucker at best.

even in an airplane with not one but TWO GPSs I still was expected to demonstrate the ability to calculate an accurate ground speed using outside references, a map, my noggin, and an e6b. Lack of a GPS is no excuse either. I assume everyone else was too?