Narrative:

I just purchased this plane; which had 13 hours on the engine and had not been flown much in the last two years. During and after the purchase of the plane; I had my a&P do a pre-buy and then fix any problems that made the airplane unsafe to fly. In preparation for the flight; I read the operating manual and flew 1.5 hours prior to a planned flight to ZZZ; about a two hour trip. During the cross country flight from home to ZZZ; approximately three miles from ZZZ; I noticed that the fuel gauges were at a quarter of a tank and I thought that I had enough fuel to make it to ZZZ. The engine started to sputter so I looked for a place to land and ran through the dash to see what was wrong. I found that the fuel; magnetos; and the master switch were all on. The mixture was leaned to best rpm; so I pushed it in and then pumped the throttle in and out. This seemed to work and the engine took off again. In addition; I made a quick call to the other plane I was traveling with to let him know what was happening. Still traveling I kept looking for a place to put the plane down while heading towards the ZZZ airport. The engine sputtered again and then I pumped the throttle again; the engine took off again. I looked to the left and there was the airport. I made my call to the airport and stated that I was low on fuel and needed priority to land. As I was entering final I noticed that the runway number was wrong and realized that I was at ZZZ2. I landed the airplane and turned onto the taxiway across the hold short line then the plane ran out of fuel. I refueled the airplane and looked for any leaks on the ground; none were visible. I performed a run-up and checked for power; then took off to ZZZ. Evaluating the situation; I went over my flight plan which included speed; altitude; distance; and fuel burn rate. Per the manual using the highest burn rate; I had plenty of fuel to make the trip with the proper reserve amount. The plane used more fuel than anticipated; lower speed and more time in flight. Currently with the a&P's help I'm evaluating why the plane used so much fuel. We suspect that the seals of the engine have not seated which caused bad combustion or there were a minor loss while flying from the fuel vent as there were not any fuel leakages on the ground. What I should have done differently was to fly the plane a little more before taking off on a cross country flight and evaluated the fuel burn rate. Two of the airports which were on our list as alternative landings were fogged in but their was another small airport approximately sixteen miles from ZZZ that I could have landed and refueled.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C150 pilot reports running out of fuel on a cross country flight of 2.5 hours and making an emergency landing at the first available airport. Aircraft is refueled and reporter continues to destination.

Narrative: I just purchased this plane; which had 13 hours on the engine and had not been flown much in the last two years. During and after the purchase of the plane; I had my A&P do a pre-buy and then fix any problems that made the airplane unsafe to fly. In preparation for the flight; I read the operating manual and flew 1.5 hours prior to a planned flight to ZZZ; about a two hour trip. During the cross country flight from home to ZZZ; approximately three miles from ZZZ; I noticed that the fuel gauges were at a quarter of a tank and I thought that I had enough fuel to make it to ZZZ. The engine started to sputter so I looked for a place to land and ran through the dash to see what was wrong. I found that the fuel; magnetos; and the master switch were all on. The mixture was leaned to best rpm; so I pushed it in and then pumped the throttle in and out. This seemed to work and the engine took off again. In addition; I made a quick call to the other plane I was traveling with to let him know what was happening. Still traveling I kept looking for a place to put the plane down while heading towards the ZZZ airport. The engine sputtered again and then I pumped the throttle again; the engine took off again. I looked to the left and there was the airport. I made my call to the airport and stated that I was low on fuel and needed priority to land. As I was entering final I noticed that the runway number was wrong and realized that I was at ZZZ2. I landed the airplane and turned onto the taxiway across the hold short line then the plane ran out of fuel. I refueled the airplane and looked for any leaks on the ground; none were visible. I performed a run-up and checked for power; then took off to ZZZ. Evaluating the situation; I went over my flight plan which included speed; altitude; distance; and fuel burn rate. Per the manual using the highest burn rate; I had plenty of fuel to make the trip with the proper reserve amount. The plane used more fuel than anticipated; lower speed and more time in flight. Currently with the A&P's help I'm evaluating why the plane used so much fuel. We suspect that the seals of the engine have not seated which caused bad combustion or there were a minor loss while flying from the fuel vent as there were not any fuel leakages on the ground. What I should have done differently was to fly the plane a little more before taking off on a cross country flight and evaluated the fuel burn rate. Two of the airports which were on our list as alternative landings were fogged in but their was another small airport approximately sixteen miles from ZZZ that I could have landed and refueled.

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.