Fun weekend buying an Arrow (long)

Highflyer wrote:
I remember one time in a light twin. I decided to run the auxilliary tanks
dry before returning to the mains so that I would have all of my remaining
fuel in the mains for the approach and landing. I flew an hour on the mains
to get some dump space for the overflow from the injectors and then switched
to the aux tanks. After churning along on the auxs for some little time the
right engine quit. As I was reaching for the fuel selector to switch it
back to the main the left engine quit. The sudden total cessation of engine
noise in midtrip got my passengers rather upset until I got them both making
appropriate noises again and explained to them what had happened and why I
did it that way. :-) Mea Maxima Culpa ...


I had essentially the same thing happen to me one night coming back from
Cleveland in a C-402. I'd been up for almost 24 hours and was exhausted (the
flight had been scheduled for early the previous morning, cancelled and then
rescheduled as I was getting ready for bed). I had flown all night in a mix of
clouds, occasional icing, and VFR. I was moving auto parts from Shelby, NC to
CLE, then back to CLT (my home base). No passengers; just me.

I took off from Cleveland IFR and my attitude indicator croaked. There was
another one on the copilot's side but I was on top before long so it was no big
deal. I settled down to cruise on the mains. After an hour of hand flying, I
switched over to the auxillary tanks. Then I fell asleep. I woke up to some
yaw and less noise... the left engine had quit! I reached over to switch tanks
and hit the boost pump to get a restart. Then the other one quit before I could
switch that tank. Holy ****! That got my attention. I switched tanks on the
right engine and hit that boost pump. By that time the left engine started. A
moment later the right one came back. I remember complimenting myself on the
accuracy of my fuel leaning.

Whew! I swore to God I'd never fall asleep again while flying. I broke my
promise twice before completing that flight.

What do they say? Any flight that doesn't end up on the 11 o'clock news
couldn't have been all that bad. It wasn't that great though... I fought 70
knot headwinds up to Cleveland (rode home at mach two), suffered a right brake
failure, failed attitude indicator, got to play with ice, had the company credit
card denied twice (at Charlie West and Cleveland), and ran the tanks dry. I
really prefer the dull life.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote in message
. com...
Matt Barrow wrote:
AVweb's John Deakin takes aim at yet another OWT (Old Wive's Tale).
While
running a fuel tank dry in your recip powered plane may serve to
increase
your heart rate, John explains why it's not such a bad thing at all, and
it
is probably a really good idea for most of us. In fact, John explains
why
it's one of the first things you ought to do with a new plane and how it
could save your life someday.


Flying the old Cherokee Six with four fuel tanks, you'd end up with almost
10
gallons unusable if you didn't run a tank dry occasionally. I tried to
never
let it happen with passengers on board. Screwed up once though...
probably
scared the hell out of them though nobody said anything about it once I'd
explained what had happened. Mea culpa.


You might want to try Deakin's approach of gathering fuel data when alone
and then be rather cautious of warning passengers that the engine will
"burp" before it happens. One aside is that I'd not recommend it with
passengers that are "Nervous Nellie's" to begin with.

Of all the people that I take as passengers (family and business partners)
all have been around GA a long time and so are comfortable with GA (that
might be a good thread: Those who will fly airlines but not GA). two of my
partners have private tickets, my son has his IR, my daughter her PVT, and
my wife has soloed. They have NO problem with an engine burping.

It is reassuring to know that my useable fuel is actually eight gallons more
than the specs portray...not that I push that foolishly.


--
Matt
---------------------
Matthew W. Barrow
Site-Fill Homes, LLC.
Montrose, CO

Matt Barrow wrote:
You might want to try Deakin's approach of gathering fuel data when alone
and then be rather cautious of warning passengers that the engine will
"burp" before it happens. One aside is that I'd not recommend it with
passengers that are "Nervous Nellie's" to begin with.


What I actually tried doing in the Cherokee Six was staging legs that didn't
require me to run things dry. For example, I could fly a C-210 nonstop from UZA
to MYAM (Rock Hill, SC to Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, 650NM) and land with 1.5 hours
of fuel. The Cherokee Six on the same trip required a stop in VRB (Vero Beach,
FL) to take on fuel.

The only time I ever ran a tank dry with people on board came from such a trip.
I had landed on a main and forgot to switch to one of the other tanks and ran it
dry about 1500 feet in the air immediately after takeoff. The silence was
deafening.

I hate when I do stuff like that.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE


Pilot's Prayer: "Dear Lord, please don't let me screw up today. And if I do,
don't let anybody see it."