Don’t be a Fuelish Pilot!

By Phil Dixon, FAASTeam Program Manager, Memphis, Tennessee

How to Stay Cool and not Freeze during an Emergency.

Back in June of 2017, I was wrapping up a safety pictures on my cell phone before the steady drizzling
presentation to a group of pilots in the airport terminal at washed away the evidence.
Poplar Bluff Airport when the airport manager Lance
Donze politely interrupted me. As he pulled his cell I didn’t open up the gas caps because I was afraid of
phone away from his right ear, he announced to me and contaminating the fuel system with the current rainfall.
the others in attendance that a plane had just crashed That would
about twenty- five miles away in Doniphan, Missouri. be something
Inspector
I finished the presentation quickly and then followed up Dan Blakely
the information Lance had taken down by calling the would do the
FAA’s Regional Operations Center (ROC). The ROC is following
the clearinghouse for aircraft accident information. From day when the
the fellow federal employee on the other end of the line, I rain was
found out it was a forced landing and that the pilot had forecasted to
survived. I got phone numbers from him for the county be over. As the FAASTeam Program Manager, I can help
deputy on the scene and for the pilot, who was apparently in situations like this, but I am not permitted to be the
unscathed by the crash landing. Inspector-In-Charge (IIC). That would be Dan’s job after
It was dark and drizzling as I got to the scene. A pathway he drove down the next morning.
formed by the red-blue lights of emergency vehicles Upon turning on the master switch, the fuel gauges didn’t
showed me the way to the rural crash site. I found a budge – there was no fuel onboard the aircraft. This
beautiful white and red 1975 Cessna 182 P with its nose means
up to the windscreen buried in the backside of a detached it was most
garage located between two homes. The plane had landed likely a case of
still during fuel exhaustion
daylight, (as opposed to
but the wet fuel starvation,
grass had which is when
impeded fuel is still
the pilot’s found in the aircraft). I took a few photos inside the
attempt to cockpit of what I observed.
brake to a
halt. The The pilot stated that he’d taken off from Killeen, Texas
left wing and was heading to Cape Girardeau, Missouri when the
strut had been ripped from the plane by a small tree engine sputtered. He was talking to ATC, so he got
during the rollout. This plane appeared to be a total loss. vectors for the nearest airport, Doniphan Airport, about
five miles behind him. After determining he wasn’t going
The pilot was coherent but seemed uncertain why the to make the airport, he found a field below and made the
engine quit. I instantly noticed the blue staining of oil approach, ending at the accident site.
residue from avgas running from the right gas cap across
the back of the wing, down the flap and even streaking He also told me that his ownership club had intended on
back down the right side empennage. I snapped a few replacing that fuel cap which they knew had been not
sealing properly.
The following day, Dan climbed up on the wing and
found the cap not fully turned to a locked position, which
undoubtedly contributed to the vacuum effect that pulled
the entire right tank of fuel from the plane.
Contributing to the whole incident is the pilot’s failure to
look at his fuel gauges enroute. A quick glance during
the two-hour plus flight might have alerted him to the
disparity between the gauges. That could’ve, would’ve,
should’ve led him to a controlled landing at an airport
serving up 100 low-lead along the way.
In Missouri, we have seen a recent rash of fuel
mismanagement cases – some ending in an accident,
some with no accident and a couple that were fatal
accidents. Fuel mismanagement cases are perhaps the
most preventable of all accidents, but pilots have to be
smart, thorough and consistent in their practices during
preflight and enroute.
While the preflight planning seemed to be adequate, the
preflight inspection left a fuel cap not fully locked down.
The bottom line is this:
 Fuel mismanagement accidents are preventable in
almost every case.
 Take time before your next flight to read (or re-
read) your pilots operating handbook regarding the
fuel system, both the checklist and the in depth
description of the system itself.
 Know the emergency procedures cold. What do you
do when the engine sputters from an empty tank? Is
yours a low-wing model with an engine-driven
pump and an electrically-driven pump? Do you turn
on the fuel pump to switch tanks? Does your system
allow for switching to either a high-pressure pump
or low- pressure pump? If so, which do you need in
an emergency? Do you have more than two tanks?
In short, understand your system completely.
 Planning should include developing a navigation
log, either on an iPad or other tablet, printed from a
program, or hand-hacked the old school way.
 Preflight inspection should include close inspection
of the seals for the fuel caps. Don’t fly if they look
damaged or worn. Consult a mechanic regarding
what you find.
Also, a damaged seal in the fuel cap is a no-go item that
needs to be replaced when discovered. The plane should
be considered ‘grounded’ until a replacement is installed.
As for the flight itself, creating a navigation log for the
flight is a great idea. It lists anticipated fuel burn at
different points of a flight. If this pilot’s habits had
included a nav log, he might have looked up crossing a
particular checkpoint to discover the inadequate
remaining fuel amount. There are programs that will
build a nav log for the pilot so he can print it and carry it
along to write notes on as the flight progresses. As a
cargo pilot many moons ago, we even used this technique
in the Boeing 727. Our company’s dispatch-produced
flight release had the nav log in it, as I recall.
As a commercial pilot and flight instructor, I have always
used the DUATS.com program. I will now have to find a
replacement I like in lieu of the decommissioning of the
duats program.
 Also, according to §91.205(b), you must have an
accurate way to determine fuel remaining. The old
adage about the fuel gauge only having to be correct
when it is empty is wrong! That’s a §21 regulation
for maintenance, and as pilots, we have drank this
Kool-aid for years. Learn that regulation and spread
the word.
 When enroute to your destination, don’t just sit back
and read a novel with the autopilot on! Stay engaged
with everything going on in your cockpit. Look at
all the instruments and gauges. Have some points
picked out along the way that remind you to check
your fuel remaining.
 When you have been refueled at your destination for
the return flight (or at the mid-point of a longer
journey), double-check that your aircraft received
the fuel you paid for prior to getting into the
courtesy car for that lunch run. If you stay at the
airport, make sure the right truck pulls up to the
aircraft. In recent years, a Cessna 421 crashed after
being serviced with Jet-A. I can’t help but think
how similar a CE-421 looks to a CE-425, which
takes Jet-A Was the fueler used to servicing a
Cessna 425?
I welcome your comments! Reach me at
phil.dixon@faa.gov.