A C175 departed with more than enough fuel for a 3 and a half hour flight but the engine quit becaus...

Narrative:

[I] left on a three and a half hour flight. The plane has 46 gallons of usable fuel on board. I visually checked it before leaving. Plane uses 10 gallons an hour at 24-24 RPM. I was on the approach to my destination. I listened to their weather no less than 4 times. The wind was ranging from 17-23 gusting 23-27 ranging from 270-310. On my final approach the wind was gusting directly across runway; too much for my 175 tail dragger to set down safely. I gave it the power to go to another airport. I took a right turn leveled out at about 300 ft; the engine stopped. I turned the boost pump on; engine started again; figured for some reason I must be out of fuel so immediately I switched frequency to a nearby military tower as runway was off to my right by about 2 miles. After calling about 4-6 times tower answered and I declared an emergency. They told me the airport was closed. I told them I had to land anyway. I then went through 5 hours of search and interrogation; and then got fuel. They then opened the airport so I could leave for my destination 26 miles to the north. (They were great.) I am investigating as to why I used so much fuel. I should have had at least 45 minutes left even after I landed at the military airport. I have no regrets that I landed at this military base. I believe I made the right decision. This experience has certainly made me aware that the unthinkable can happen. I just feel very fortunate that the base was so close. On the remainder of the trip I used a consistent 10 gallons an hour. I know fuel expands when hot. The temperature at my original departure airport was in the 70's. By the time I got to the first airport after flying at 5;000 ft the temp dropped to the high 30's. I am sure I would not have lost 10 gallons because of temperature change.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C175 departed with more than enough fuel for a 3 and a half hour flight but the engine quit because of fuel starvation while executing a windshear go around so the pilot diverted to a military field with the boost pumps ON.

Narrative: [I] left on a three and a half hour flight. The plane has 46 gallons of usable fuel on board. I visually checked it before leaving. Plane uses 10 gallons an hour at 24-24 RPM. I was on the approach to my destination. I listened to their weather no less than 4 times. The wind was ranging from 17-23 gusting 23-27 ranging from 270-310. On my final approach the wind was gusting directly across runway; too much for my 175 tail dragger to set down safely. I gave it the power to go to another airport. I took a right turn leveled out at about 300 FT; the engine stopped. I turned the boost pump on; engine started again; figured for some reason I must be out of fuel so immediately I switched frequency to a nearby military Tower as runway was off to my right by about 2 miles. After calling about 4-6 times Tower answered and I declared an emergency. They told me the airport was closed. I told them I had to land anyway. I then went through 5 hours of search and interrogation; and then got fuel. They then opened the airport so I could leave for my destination 26 miles to the north. (They were great.) I am investigating as to why I used so much fuel. I should have had at least 45 minutes left even after I landed at the military airport. I have no regrets that I landed at this military base. I believe I made the right decision. This experience has certainly made me aware that the unthinkable can happen. I just feel very fortunate that the base was so close. On the remainder of the trip I used a consistent 10 gallons an hour. I know fuel expands when hot. The temperature at my original departure airport was in the 70's. By the time I got to the first airport after flying at 5;000 FT the temp dropped to the high 30's. I am sure I would not have lost 10 gallons because of temperature change.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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	994255
Time
Date	201202
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	Skylark 175
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel System
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 17 Flight Crew Total 1309 Flight Crew Type 1300
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

A C175 departed with more than enough fuel for a 3 and a half hour flight but the engine quit because of fuel starvation while executing a windshear go around so the pilot diverted to a military field with the boost pumps on.