Narrative:

I arrived at the airport with eagerness to finish up one of my 100nm cross countries that were needed to take my commercial check ride. I had already checked my weather and I had already figured my flight plan and had it filed with FSS. During my preflight I visually checked my fuel and couldn't tell if they were full or not; so I checked it with my fuel gauges that read both tanks were full. Relying on the fuel gauges that they were correct I departed. Upon reaching my turn around point I noticed that my left tank was reading empty; but my right tank read completely full. So I continued my flight back. About six miles out from a neighboring airport I started experiencing engine roughness. I notified center of the engine roughness and directed my flight towards that diversion airport. When trying to figure out the problem of my engine roughness I checked my fuel gauges and my left tank read low and my right tank read half full. Still thinking that fuel wasn't the problem I proceeded to continue to figure out the problem. Finding no solutions to the problem I continued my course and around 500 ft above the diversion runway; I lost my engine power; but was still able to make a smooth landing. When I was safely landed on the ground I checked my fuel gauges and they were still reading low on the left and half full on the right; but when I got out to visually check my fuel tanks they were extremely low. I know this problem could of been avoided if I would have checked to see if anymore fuel could have been added.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Both fuel gauges of a C152 were inaccurate. The pilot relied on the gauges to determine departure fuel and with low fuel quantity the aircraft's engine lost power; forcing a divert where a safe landing was finally made.

Narrative: I arrived at the airport with eagerness to finish up one of my 100nm cross countries that were needed to take my commercial check ride. I had already checked my weather and I had already figured my flight plan and had it filed with FSS. During my preflight I visually checked my fuel and couldn't tell if they were full or not; so I checked it with my fuel gauges that read both tanks were full. Relying on the fuel gauges that they were correct I departed. Upon reaching my turn around point I noticed that my left tank was reading empty; but my right tank read completely full. So I continued my flight back. About six miles out from a neighboring airport I started experiencing engine roughness. I notified Center of the engine roughness and directed my flight towards that diversion airport. When trying to figure out the problem of my engine roughness I checked my fuel gauges and my left tank read low and my right tank read half full. Still thinking that fuel wasn't the problem I proceeded to continue to figure out the problem. Finding no solutions to the problem I continued my course and around 500 FT above the diversion runway; I lost my engine power; but was still able to make a smooth landing. When I was safely landed on the ground I checked my fuel gauges and they were still reading low on the left and half full on the right; but when I got out to visually check my fuel tanks they were extremely low. I know this problem could of been avoided if I would have checked to see if anymore fuel could have been added.

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.