Despite ten gallons of fuel remaining in one tank; a cessna 210 pilot suffered an engine failure due...

Narrative:

I requested a top-off for our aircraft. When the fuel truck arrived at the hangar; I told the technician to fill it to the top. After getting fueled; I performed a thorough preflight inspection of the aircraft. After a lengthy flight; I initiated a hard left turn to set up for my return flight. Without warning; the engine quit. I immediately began going through my memorized emergency procedures. I confirmed that the fuel selector valve was on 'both.' while doing this; I noticed the right tank was indicating empty. I immediately switched tanks to the left tank; which was indicating slightly below 10 gallons; and tried to restart the engine. As I was trying the restart; I spotted an open area of beach. I quickly told the crew to brace for an emergency landing as I turned toward that open section of beach. I lowered the gear and initiated a soft-field landing away from any civilians. After coming to a stop; I checked to make sure everyone was ok. Not knowing the cause of the engine failure; I had everyone disembark the aircraft while I checked the engine. I contacted our chief mechanic to discuss the problem. We discussed the fuel and he asked if I had a positive fuel flow. I climbed into the cockpit and confirmed that the left tank was reading slightly less than 10 gallons and there was a positive fuel flow to the engine. He asked me to restart the engine. With the fuel selector on the left tank; I was able to restart the engine. I believe that the incident was caused due to the limited amount of fuel from the right wing 'running' into the far tip of the left wing during steep turns toward the left wing. Since there is no fuel 'port' on the tip of the wings; the plane was starved for fuel and the engine quit. This occurred even with 10 gallons of fuel remaining in the left tank. Also; a better understanding of the fuel system would have prevented me from allowing the fuel to get this low while performing steep turns.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Despite ten gallons of fuel remaining in one tank; a Cessna 210 Pilot suffered an engine failure due to fuel starvation near the end of a long flight.

Narrative: I requested a top-off for our aircraft. When the fuel truck arrived at the hangar; I told the technician to fill it to the top. After getting fueled; I performed a thorough preflight inspection of the aircraft. After a lengthy flight; I initiated a hard left turn to set up for my return flight. Without warning; the engine quit. I immediately began going through my memorized emergency procedures. I confirmed that the fuel selector valve was on 'Both.' While doing this; I noticed the right tank was indicating empty. I immediately switched tanks to the left tank; which was indicating slightly below 10 gallons; and tried to restart the engine. As I was trying the restart; I spotted an open area of beach. I quickly told the crew to brace for an emergency landing as I turned toward that open section of beach. I lowered the gear and initiated a soft-field landing away from any civilians. After coming to a stop; I checked to make sure everyone was OK. Not knowing the cause of the engine failure; I had everyone disembark the aircraft while I checked the engine. I contacted our Chief Mechanic to discuss the problem. We discussed the fuel and he asked if I had a positive fuel flow. I climbed into the cockpit and confirmed that the left tank was reading slightly less than 10 gallons and there was a positive fuel flow to the engine. He asked me to restart the engine. With the fuel selector on the left tank; I was able to restart the engine. I believe that the incident was caused due to the limited amount of fuel from the right wing 'running' into the far tip of the left wing during steep turns toward the left wing. Since there is no fuel 'port' on the tip of the wings; the plane was starved for fuel and the engine quit. This occurred even with 10 gallons of fuel remaining in the left tank. Also; a better understanding of the fuel system would have prevented me from allowing the fuel to get this low while performing steep turns.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	832123
Time
Date	200904
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	Cessna 210 Centurion / Turbo Centurion 210C 210D
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 75 Flight Crew Total 1735 Flight Crew Type 1386
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Other Off Airport Landing

Despite ten gallons of fuel remaining in one tank; a cessna 210 pilot suffered an engine failure due to fuel starvation near the end of a long flight.