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A PA28 pilot on a long cross country suffered an engine failure possibly due to fuel starvation as he approached his destination.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 858396 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200910 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| 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 | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | None |
| Component | |
| Aircraft Component | Engine |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 425 Flight Crew Type 200 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical |
Narrative:
I was cruising at 5500 feet VFR with flight following. As I neared my destination I requested to descend down to 2000 feet. About 20 miles before the destination; the engine was running rough; making noise; and no power. I turned the fuel pump on and switched tanks; it was still the same with no power. Aircraft was going to stall; so I made sure wings were level and lowered the nose to get airspeed. However; ahead of me was water and the bay. There was no way that I could make it to the airport; so I looked for a good field to put the airplane down in. I spotted a dirt road in a cattle farm; so I made the emergency landing on the dirt road in the farm with no power. No one got hurt; and nothing was damaged on the ground; and also the airplane was not damaged. I visually inspected the fuel tanks; and they had about 4 gallons in each tank. We added more fuel; just to be safe; then moved the aircraft to a safe location for further a&P mechanic evaluation. However; I think that fuel starvation was the problem. There was a strong head wind of about 30 knots; so the airplane burned more fuel than anticipated. I will never fly the airplane that low on fuel again.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A PA28 pilot on a long cross country suffered an engine failure possibly due to fuel starvation as he approached his destination.
Narrative: I was cruising at 5500 feet VFR with flight following. As I neared my destination I requested to descend down to 2000 feet. About 20 miles before the destination; the engine was running rough; making noise; and no power. I turned the fuel pump on and switched tanks; it was still the same with no power. Aircraft was going to stall; so I made sure wings were level and lowered the nose to get airspeed. However; ahead of me was water and the bay. There was no way that I could make it to the airport; so I looked for a good field to put the airplane down in. I spotted a dirt road in a cattle farm; so I made the emergency landing on the dirt road in the farm with no power. No one got hurt; and nothing was damaged on the ground; and also the airplane was not damaged. I visually inspected the fuel tanks; and they had about 4 gallons in each tank. We added more fuel; just to be safe; then moved the aircraft to a safe location for further A&P mechanic evaluation. However; I think that fuel starvation was the problem. There was a strong head wind of about 30 knots; so the airplane burned more fuel than anticipated. I will never fly the airplane that low on fuel again.
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.