Narrative:

Flew from my home base to a nearby airport for dinner and then returned. The person who rented the aircraft immediately before my flight was an acquaintance and a former student (only a newly minted private pilot though). This individual is fairly intelligent and is very attentive to details. He proceeded to brief me on all the problems with the plane before my departure (ex: the GPS wasn't working; the airspeed indicator dash light was burnt out; the left main tire wasn't wearing properly... Etc.). He also mentioned that the fuel was at 3/4 tank and wrote that it was at 3/4 tank on the aircraft log sheet. I was in a rush because the restaurant was closing soon and so I took his word for the fuel level and only checked the oil dipstick for my pre-flight. With this in consideration; I flew with a student (my girlfriend) to the nearby airport for dinner and the flight was uneventful. After dinner I once again only checked the oil dipstick before departing. Based on a 3/4 tank of fuel and the rate of fuel burn; this aircraft was supposed to have at least a 1.5 hour fuel reserve upon landing back at my home base. However; upon initial decent from our VFR cruising altitude of 4;500 ft MSL the engine started to cut in and out and I took the controls. I'm guessing that the engine failed at around 4;000 ft MSL on the decent. At this point I can only estimate that our distance from our intended landing airport was roughly five nautical miles (the GPS was not working). I was able to successfully glide the aircraft for a straight in landing on runway 28. I had not been monitoring the fuel quantity indicator throughout the flight and when the engine failed it was still registering 1/8 tank. The tower had closed for the evening and so the field was desolate. This situation is entirely due to pilot error and could have been easily avoided with a proper pre-flight inspection (and/or a more thorough scan of the engine instruments in flight). My student and I were able to push the plane back into its hanger and have not reported the incident.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A DA20 engine quit because of fuel exhaustion with the quantity indicating one eighth remaining but the instructor pilot was able to safely glide and land at the intended destination airport.

Narrative: Flew from my home base to a nearby airport for dinner and then returned. The person who rented the aircraft immediately before my flight was an acquaintance and a former student (only a newly minted private pilot though). This individual is fairly intelligent and is very attentive to details. He proceeded to brief me on all the problems with the plane before my departure (EX: the GPS wasn't working; the airspeed indicator dash light was burnt out; the left main tire wasn't wearing properly... etc.). He also mentioned that the fuel was at 3/4 tank and wrote that it was at 3/4 tank on the aircraft log sheet. I was in a rush because the restaurant was closing soon and so I took his word for the fuel level and only checked the oil dipstick for my pre-flight. With this in consideration; I flew with a student (my girlfriend) to the nearby airport for dinner and the flight was uneventful. After dinner I once again only checked the oil dipstick before departing. Based on a 3/4 tank of fuel and the rate of fuel burn; this aircraft was supposed to have at least a 1.5 hour fuel reserve upon landing back at my home base. However; upon initial decent from our VFR cruising altitude of 4;500 FT MSL the engine started to cut in and out and I took the controls. I'm guessing that the engine failed at around 4;000 FT MSL on the decent. At this point I can only estimate that our distance from our intended landing airport was roughly five nautical miles (the GPS was not working). I was able to successfully glide the aircraft for a straight in landing on Runway 28. I had not been monitoring the fuel quantity indicator throughout the flight and when the engine failed it was still registering 1/8 tank. The Tower had closed for the evening and so the field was desolate. This situation is entirely due to pilot error and could have been easily avoided with a proper pre-flight inspection (and/or a more thorough scan of the engine instruments in flight). My student and I were able to push the plane back into its hanger and have not reported the incident.

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.