37000 Feet | Browse and search NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System |
|
Attributes | |
ACN | 1580195 |
Time | |
Date | 201809 |
Local Time Of Day | 1201-1800 |
Place | |
Locale Reference | ZZZ.Airport |
State Reference | US |
Environment | |
Flight Conditions | VMC |
Light | Daylight |
Aircraft 1 | |
Make Model Name | PA-28 Cherokee/Archer/Dakota/Pillan/Warrior |
Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
Flight Phase | Descent |
Route In Use | Direct |
Flight Plan | IFR |
Person 1 | |
Function | Pilot Flying Single Pilot |
Qualification | Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Commercial |
Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 4254 Flight Crew Type 450 |
Events | |
Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural FAR Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue |
Narrative:
I was first concerned about my lack of fuel as I was passing ZZZ. But when I looked at both fuel gauges; I thought that I had a good 6 or 7 gallons of fuel and thought that I really had enough fuel to get to my destination. However; when I flipped back to the opposite tank it went dry in about 30 seconds. At that point I still thought I was ok; but in this plane the indicators gave me only about half of the fuel I had anticipated. At this point I was beyond ZZZ and asked ATC to be rerouted to ZZZ1; which was closer than [intended destination]. I was at about 4;000 feet when I suffered fuel exhaustion. I used the throttle to give me a few more turns with power; but I could see that I wasn't going to be able to get to the field. As I was trained well by the civil air patrol; I looked for a safe place to land. I saw a green field 1.3 miles north and a bit west and I headed for it and landed both myself and the plane safely.I have been flying complex high performance aircraft for almost all of my 50 years of flying. I did not realize it until too late that this machine; great flying as it is; will not stretch fuel and get the speed that my old cessna 210A did. I always file an IFR flight plan usually a half day early and then check again before I take off on this cross country flight. My main concern that morning was getting out of the cold front and into better weather. Everything was going along fine until I hit a strong headwind at about the [state] border. Even then; I did not think of going into [an alternate] and at ZZZ I convinced myself I had enough fuel. That was my undoing! I have thought of little else but why I did this and I have taught school and preached safety and as a clergyman I have 'clay feet.'
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: PA28 pilot reported fuel starvation and landing aircraft in a field.
Narrative: I was first concerned about my lack of fuel as I was passing ZZZ. But when I looked at both fuel gauges; I thought that I had a good 6 or 7 gallons of fuel and thought that I really had enough fuel to get to my destination. However; when I flipped back to the opposite tank it went dry in about 30 seconds. At that point I still thought I was OK; but in this plane the indicators gave me only about half of the fuel I had anticipated. At this point I was beyond ZZZ and asked ATC to be rerouted to ZZZ1; which was closer than [intended destination]. I was at about 4;000 feet when I suffered fuel exhaustion. I used the throttle to give me a few more turns with power; but I could see that I wasn't going to be able to get to the field. As I was trained well by the Civil Air Patrol; I looked for a safe place to land. I saw a green field 1.3 miles north and a bit west and I headed for it and landed both myself and the plane safely.I have been flying complex high performance aircraft for almost all of my 50 years of flying. I did not realize it until too late that this machine; great flying as it is; will not stretch fuel and get the speed that my old Cessna 210A did. I always file an IFR flight plan usually a half day early and then check again before I take off on this cross country flight. My main concern that morning was getting out of the cold front and into better weather. Everything was going along fine until I hit a strong headwind at about the [state] border. Even then; I did not think of going into [an alternate] and at ZZZ I convinced myself I had enough fuel. That was my undoing! I have thought of little else but why I did this and I have taught school and preached safety and as a clergyman I have 'clay feet.'
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.