An instructor and his student aboard an ercoupe 415D landed short of the runway when the engine fail...

Narrative:

While on a routine training flight with my student in his ercoupe 415D we encountered an engine failure while turning from the downwind to the base leg in the pattern. As we later would find out; sometime during the flight the engine driven fuel pump had failed and stopped supplying fuel from the wing tanks to the nose tank and thus to the engine. Due to a stuck float-type fuel indicator mounted on the nose of the aircraft; the emptiness of the nose fuel tank never presented itself. Upon the initial encounter of engine roughness; I instructed the student to turn directly to the runway; however; as it became clear that the engine had failed; I took control of the aircraft. My first thought was to glide to the runway; but almost immediately it became clear that the ensuing glideslope would have us land short of the runway into the fields and swamps surrounding the airport. Below me I saw a long; straight service road and I decided to use it as the landing site. After a few moments of gliding; I touched the aircraft down onto the service road and made an uneventful landing. There was no damage to the aircraft or property on the ground; and no one was injured during the event.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Instructor and his student aboard an Ercoupe 415D landed short of the runway when the engine failed due to fuel starvation. A stuck float-type fuel quantity indicator in the nose fuel tank contributed to their failure to recognize the pending failure.

Narrative: While on a routine training flight with my student in his Ercoupe 415D we encountered an engine failure while turning from the downwind to the base leg in the pattern. As we later would find out; sometime during the flight the engine driven fuel pump had failed and stopped supplying fuel from the wing tanks to the nose tank and thus to the engine. Due to a stuck float-type fuel indicator mounted on the nose of the aircraft; the emptiness of the nose fuel tank never presented itself. Upon the initial encounter of engine roughness; I instructed the student to turn directly to the runway; however; as it became clear that the engine had failed; I took control of the aircraft. My first thought was to glide to the runway; but almost immediately it became clear that the ensuing glideslope would have us land short of the runway into the fields and swamps surrounding the airport. Below me I saw a long; straight service road and I decided to use it as the landing site. After a few moments of gliding; I touched the aircraft down onto the service road and made an uneventful landing. There was no damage to the aircraft or property on the ground; and no one was injured during the event.

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	897850
Time
Date	201007
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	Small Aircraft Low Wing 1 Eng Fixed Gear
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine Driven Pump
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 57.8 Flight Crew Total 534.2 Flight Crew Type 3.0
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical

An instructor and his student aboard an ercoupe 415D landed short of the runway when the engine failed due to fuel starvation. A stuck float-type fuel quantity indicator in the nose fuel tank contributed to their failure to recognize the pending failure.