Narrative:

I topped with 100LL fuel; filed an IFR flight plan. Departed and opened my flight plan in the air ATC. I flew direct to my destination as cleared by ATC. After receiving ASOS and the field in sight I cancelled my IFR flight plan due to no radar coverage in the area. After squawking VFR and changing to advisory; the engine quit. I immediately switched tanks with no improvement. I returned to center frequency and made an emergency call to center and gave them my location. With the prop windmilling I turned the fuel boost pump on I smelled fuel but still no results and turned it back off. I established published glide slope and pulled out the emergency checklist and proceeded as published. After checklist complete; I identified the best possible landing site. I extended the landing gear and applied full flaps and started doing 'south' turns to lose altitude and reduce air speed. After avoiding obstacles; landed the aircraft without injury or damage. After the FAA agents arrived at the location they instructed the aircraft mechanic to drain all the fuel from the sump. After that we put 15 gallons 100LL fuel in each side. We ran the engine and cleared all the air from the lines and the mechanic deemed the plane safe for flight. I took off and flew directly to my destination (approximately 3 miles) and landed without incident. The airport manager filled the plane and it held a total of 37.9 gallons of 100LL fuel. The placard by each fuel cap says 100LL 40 us gallons. A known amount of fuel placed in the aircraft after draining it completely was 52.9 gallons; not accounting for the fuel that is not useable or that was burned while checking the engine or flying to the destination. The owner of the aircraft was advised of the incident and the owner's mechanics will do further inspections to find out why the aircraft would not hold 80 gallons of fuel.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A BE36's engine quit at cruise because of fuel starvation. An emergency was declared and a safe off airport landing completed. A post flight maintenance investigation revealed a discrepancy between the amount of fuel the aircraft was physically capable of carrying verses the placarded capacity.

Narrative: I topped with 100LL fuel; filed an IFR flight plan. Departed and opened my flight plan in the air ATC. I flew direct to my destination as cleared by ATC. After receiving ASOS and the field in sight I cancelled my IFR flight plan due to no RADAR coverage in the area. After squawking VFR and changing to advisory; the engine quit. I immediately switched tanks with no improvement. I returned to Center frequency and made an emergency call to Center and gave them my location. With the prop windmilling I turned the fuel boost pump on I smelled fuel but still no results and turned it back off. I established published glide slope and pulled out the emergency checklist and proceeded as published. After checklist complete; I identified the best possible landing site. I extended the landing gear and applied full flaps and started doing 'S' turns to lose altitude and reduce air speed. After avoiding obstacles; landed the aircraft without injury or damage. After the FAA agents arrived at the location they instructed the aircraft mechanic to drain all the fuel from the sump. After that we put 15 gallons 100LL fuel in each side. We ran the engine and cleared all the air from the lines and the mechanic deemed the plane safe for flight. I took off and flew directly to my destination (approximately 3 miles) and landed without incident. The airport manager filled the plane and it held a total of 37.9 gallons of 100LL fuel. The placard by each fuel cap says 100LL 40 US gallons. A known amount of fuel placed in the aircraft after draining it completely was 52.9 gallons; not accounting for the fuel that is not useable or that was burned while checking the engine or flying to the destination. The owner of the aircraft was advised of the incident and the owner's mechanics will do further inspections to find out why the aircraft would not hold 80 gallons of fuel.

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.