Thanks guys for being supportive. I think I am being harder on myself
then what I have received here, I really expected harsher criticism
which I feel is dully warranted. I just got back into town today off
of another flight so I was unable to respond to the responses
yesterday, so I will try to answer most of the questions in this one
post.

As for the configuration of the Seneca II Turbo, it has 2- 200hp
engines. The fuel consumption at cruise is at 24gph for both engines,
and I have the 123 gallon tanks. The left engine feeds from the left
tank and the right engine feeds from the right tank. The only thing
that I can figure out as far as the discrepancy between the two tanks
fuel levels is this. First the Janitrol heater draws off of the right
tank which for the flight should have only drawn around 2.5 gallons,
this was considered for the flight planning. Second is when I had the
tanks filled for my journey home, there may have been a 1-2 gallon
discrepancy in the fill (just a guess) between the two tanks. Third,
with leaning, I use the EGT gauge to lean so there could have been a
difference in fuel flow to the right engine, the fuel flow indicators
are always off a little but they are always approximate anyways.

When I got on the ground, I was curious as to how much fuel was in the
left tank so I had the line guy fill the plane (he wasn't really happy
about that because it was like 10 degrees nowand still snowing). I
had about 11 gallons left in the left tank. That was after I landed
and had to taxi (on both engines) about 1.3 miles due to taxi way
closers and having to land on the opposite side of the field from the
FBO.

As far as the fuel reserves were concerned, they were considered, FOR
VFR. But even after I landed I still had almost an hour of fuel in
the left tank, just not in the right. I spoke to the briefer before I
departed and looked on the WSI computer and there was nothing
forecasted for this IFR conditions and nothing on the satellite
imagery that would indicate this stuff would back up against the
mountains and cause this. This was just a freak thing that happened
because of the mountains and the moisture that was in the air. In
fact I was told it did the same thing last night here, just wasn't as
severe and now it is clear blue and 22.

With regards to restarting the engine, that was not a decision that I
had made. When the fan quit, I was in the middle of intercepting the
localizer and I had no time to really make that decision at that
moment, I was doing everything I could to intercept and turn inbound
because I knew things were getting critical. I had the plane under
control for the most part and I did not want to divert my scan to
something else for the moment, all I did at that time is hit the cross
feed. Once I got the plane semi stabilized on the localizer and I had
intercepted the GS and started my decent was when I diverted a little
attention to that situation. Things had calmed down just a smidge so
I was in the thought process of determining the best action. Just as
I was checking the mixture, prop, throttle and fuel settings for the
right engine is when I noticed the manifold pressure and RPM'S started
to come up and then a very noticeable yaw to the left because of more
power was being produced by the right engine. I then brought the power
down to match the left. CHT temps on the right engine was a little
cooler but with regards to the time frame it didn't have much time to
cool too much. Of course I really have no idea how much time the
engine had been down (looking at the clock for that was just not in my
mind) but given my approx location and the decent point I figured
probably around 3 minutes but that is a guess, it seemed like an
eternity to me.

With regards to the GPS and MFD it is in my scan. Those are
invaluable with regards to positional awareness especially near the
mountains. Just that the CDI indicator was overlooked. My stress
level from 1-10 was probably about a 15 and missing a little tiny
window on the bottom left side of the GPS is something that I did
overlook. I trusted my HSI which was indicating correctly in regards
to my position to the airport. Just that when I turned for final
vectors, the needle never moved which started this whole mess.

I have set aside some time in the next few days to go under the hood
and shoot multiple approaches and holds using this equipment. Not
that I have not done this already. I have shot about 5 approaches
with the new equipment when we first got it but the stress level was
not there as it was this time. I plan on having my safety pilot do
all kinds of things to try and get the blood pressure back to where it
was that night.


Again thanks for being supportive

Scott