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Old December 26th 06, 01:51 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Mortimer Schnerd, RN[_2_]
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Default Flying a PA-28 140 from Maine to Georgia in a week end ...

Roy Smith wrote:
In article ,
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote:

Not me, Buddy. I once ran a C-210 out of gas at the end of a 45 minute
flight that started with 1.5 hour's fuel (figured from elapsed time).


So, what went wrong?



Never really found out. Personally, I think fuel was stolen at Freeport. I
took off early in the morning; I couldn't buy fuel or find a ladder to climb up
and physically look in the fuel tanks. For me to run out when I actually did,
mathmatics would suggest I burned over 22 gallons an hour. That just wasn't
possible. I had averaged maybe 15 gallons block to block on earlier trips. 65%
power at my selected altitude should have yielded about 13.5 gallons per hour at
cruise.

Anyway, I freely admit I screwed the pooch on many different planes, pardon the
pun. Be that as it may, and after much grumbling from the FAA, they finally
decided to do nothing. No violation, no civil penalty, not even a nasty letter.
It just went away.

However, I have adjusted my practices quite a bit in the years that followed.
And of course, my personal rule about worrying about fuel means I don't have
enough came out of that.

As an aside: my father, a former USAF command pilot, ran out of gas while
driving near his home a couple of weeks later. Some wag down there asked if
he'd taught me how to fly. G



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com