Confession time (long)

In my 10+ years of flying, I've set several personal minimums for
myself. One of them is to never be in the air with much less than
half tanks of fuel. My Skylane burns 11.5gph like clockwork and
holds 65 gallons total in both wings, 55 gallons useable. I usually
fly for about 2.5 or 3 hours and then fill up. I like the safety edge
and besides, it prevents me from having to **** in a bottle!

Admittedly, I'm the judgemental type who sneers at those stories of
pilots running out of gas 5 minutes from their destination or having
to put down in a corn field because they "thought" they had enough
fuel to make it to the airport. Jeez, how could anyone be that
stupid? WELL, ADD ME TO THE LIST!

Sunday was a beautiful day here on the Front Range. High cirrus,
warm temps, calm air. Great day to take the dogs flying out on the
Eastern Plains from Boulder to Kimball, NE. When I preflighted, the
stick showed that I had a half tank of gas in one wing and a little
less than half in the other. Oh yeah, normally I top up after each
flight but the self-serve pump was down after my last flight and I
just put 8565T back in the hanger. First mistake. I told myself
that it's a little less than an hour to get to Kimball so I was fine
and they have a self serve pump there so I can fuel up after landing.

Had a pleasant flight tracking to and then from the Gill VOR to get to
Kimball. The FBO is closed on Sunday and the courtesy wreck was
nowhere to be found. So, we (the dogs and me) walked around the
airport a bit and then decided to head home. I preflighted and
checked the fuel again which showed me down to a little more than a
1/4 tank in each wing. The gauges were more optimistic but, we were
on the ground and I've NEVER trusted the fuel gauges! But, I wanted
to get home (woe is me) and didn't want to fool with the self-serve
pump. I figured I had enough fuel with some to spare and besides, I
could land at Greeley, Fort-Love or Longmont in a pinch. So I took
off. Second mistake and first opportunity lost.

About 15 minutes into the flight I noticed that the fuel gauges had
headed south and were hovering below 1/4 for both tanks. I thought
that I could now turn back to Kimball and fill up just to be safe.
But no, my stick showed that I could make it to Boulder. Second
opportunity lost.

As I was approaching Greeley, I was beginning to really get nervous
about the gauges which were now at 1/8. OK, land at Greeley, fill
up and fly home with a clear conscience. But, I'm only 15 minutes
from Boulder - no problem. I can make it. Third opportunity lost.

Now, in addition to nervously watching the gauges which I was sure
were moving every second toward empty, I was also scanning more
intensely for an emergency landing site and going over procedures. I
was doing this even as I passed Fort Collins - Loveland where I had
another chance to land! Ultimate stupidity and fourth opportunity
lost. My rationalization: I'm only 10 minutes from Boulder.

As I got to Longmont, one needle was close to empty and the other was
hovering below 1/8. Hell, I'm just 5 minutes from Boulder - I can
make it. Fifth opportunity lost.

I was sweating as I entered the pattern at Boulder realizing that if
it all quit now, at least I could make the runway. Flew a tight
pattern and dropped down with 40 degrees of flaps. I can say that
I've never been so happy to be on the ground! I taxied to the pumps
and filled up. Put a total of 44 gallons in. Yes, the gauges were
all wrong - not a surprise. My fuel stick, not exactly a precision
instrument, was off. I still had a little less than an hour's
reserve.

However, it could have gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction if
the head winds were fierce, I didn't lean properly or any number of
other circumstances. I took a needless risk for absolutely no reason
than the dreaded get-home-itis. This was the slap in the face, wake
up call and cold water all in one. I had 5 chances to avoid what
could have been a potential disaster and I just kept going. Never
again will I put myself in this situation. It's not worth the risk
and certainly not the stomach stress!

Dogs can fly. (always with half tanks)
http://www.flyingmutts.com

"Alan" wrote:
[snip]

Good post.

Having recently done something stupid which I swore I would never let happen,
I feel your pain.

How easy it is to rationalize oneself into doing nothing as a situation
deteriorates! How many aircraft and people are lost this way each year?

--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

Alan wrote:

In my 10+ years of flying, I've set several personal minimums for
myself. One of them is to never be in the air with much less than
half tanks of fuel.

Ouch. I'm just the opposite with my 182. Unless I'm going a long way I
never want more than half tanks for farting around the local area. Too
much gas just saps the performance.

Wow, Alan!

Thanks for the post. I'm glad everything turned out okay for you.

"Alan" wrote in message
...

In my 10+ years of flying, I've set several personal minimums for
myself. One of them is to never be in the air with much less than
half tanks of fuel. My Skylane burns 11.5gph like clockwork and
holds 65 gallons total in both wings, 55 gallons useable. I usually
fly for about 2.5 or 3 hours and then fill up. I like the safety edge
and besides, it prevents me from having to **** in a bottle!

Admittedly, I'm the judgemental type who sneers at those stories of
pilots running out of gas 5 minutes from their destination or having
to put down in a corn field because they "thought" they had enough
fuel to make it to the airport. Jeez, how could anyone be that
stupid? WELL, ADD ME TO THE LIST!

snip!

Another fuel story.

One of my partners had just returned from Tulsa, OK Saturday evening. He
landed after the FBO closed and couldn't refuel the plane so, I fueled it
Sunday morning before my family and I headed out to Grand Rapids, MI. I put
in 113.5 gallons.

With nice winds aloft, we made it from STE to 9D9 in 1.3 hours, door to
door. We spend the day with the in-laws and then departed that afternoon.
During my pre-flight I checked the fuel levels. I was looking into the sun
and couldn't see the fuel in our outboard tanks. Stuck my fingers in and
couldn't feel any fuel. I checked the inboards and I could see they were
down about 2 inches. I'd switched tanks once during our short trip.

So I'm telling myself.... "Self, you just pumped 113.5 gallons of gas into
this beast and you can't see any fuel in the outboard tanks?! Even with
headwinds on the way home, it would only take 75 gallons MAX, (3x normal
fuel burn) but do you really want to be so stupid as to take off without
topping off?" Self responded by saying "Nope, you don't know where that
fuel went, the outboard tanks could be entirely empty, it might have just
got sucked out the caps and the inboards could be down to 25 gallons each,
that's 2 hours flight time MAX." So I topped everything off.... it took 34
gallons total. Just about right.

It was un-nerveing enough not to be able to see the fuel in the outboard
tanks, even though I knew it was just because I was looking into the sun.
My family was waiting on the ramp in a 18 knot wind waiting for me to tell
them to get in the plane. The in-laws, my brother in-law and his kids were
waiting to watch us take off. The extra trouble of starting up a twin and
taxiing to the fuel pumps all combined to put pressure on me to get going
but I just told myself that is exactly how people end up on the bottom of
Lake Michigan. Fueling probably added 15 minutes to the end of our flying
day. Not a very big deal considering the possible consiquenses.

Jim

I'm glad that you recognize your mistakes. Just remember how you feel now
and I'll bet you stop for fuel next time.
Jim

"Alan" wrote in message
...

In my 10+ years of flying, I've set several personal minimums for
myself. One of them is to never be in the air with much less than
half tanks of fuel. My Skylane burns 11.5gph like clockwork and
holds 65 gallons total in both wings, 55 gallons useable. I usually
fly for about 2.5 or 3 hours and then fill up. I like the safety edge
and besides, it prevents me from having to **** in a bottle!

Admittedly, I'm the judgemental type who sneers at those stories of
pilots running out of gas 5 minutes from their destination or having
to put down in a corn field because they "thought" they had enough
fuel to make it to the airport. Jeez, how could anyone be that
stupid? WELL, ADD ME TO THE LIST!

Sunday was a beautiful day here on the Front Range. High cirrus,
warm temps, calm air. Great day to take the dogs flying out on the
Eastern Plains from Boulder to Kimball, NE. When I preflighted, the
stick showed that I had a half tank of gas in one wing and a little
less than half in the other. Oh yeah, normally I top up after each
flight but the self-serve pump was down after my last flight and I
just put 8565T back in the hanger. First mistake. I told myself
that it's a little less than an hour to get to Kimball so I was fine
and they have a self serve pump there so I can fuel up after landing.

Had a pleasant flight tracking to and then from the Gill VOR to get to
Kimball. The FBO is closed on Sunday and the courtesy wreck was
nowhere to be found. So, we (the dogs and me) walked around the
airport a bit and then decided to head home. I preflighted and
checked the fuel again which showed me down to a little more than a
1/4 tank in each wing. The gauges were more optimistic but, we were
on the ground and I've NEVER trusted the fuel gauges! But, I wanted
to get home (woe is me) and didn't want to fool with the self-serve
pump. I figured I had enough fuel with some to spare and besides, I
could land at Greeley, Fort-Love or Longmont in a pinch. So I took
off. Second mistake and first opportunity lost.

About 15 minutes into the flight I noticed that the fuel gauges had
headed south and were hovering below 1/4 for both tanks. I thought
that I could now turn back to Kimball and fill up just to be safe.
But no, my stick showed that I could make it to Boulder. Second
opportunity lost.

As I was approaching Greeley, I was beginning to really get nervous
about the gauges which were now at 1/8. OK, land at Greeley, fill
up and fly home with a clear conscience. But, I'm only 15 minutes
from Boulder - no problem. I can make it. Third opportunity lost.

Now, in addition to nervously watching the gauges which I was sure
were moving every second toward empty, I was also scanning more
intensely for an emergency landing site and going over procedures. I
was doing this even as I passed Fort Collins - Loveland where I had
another chance to land! Ultimate stupidity and fourth opportunity
lost. My rationalization: I'm only 10 minutes from Boulder.

As I got to Longmont, one needle was close to empty and the other was
hovering below 1/8. Hell, I'm just 5 minutes from Boulder - I can
make it. Fifth opportunity lost.

I was sweating as I entered the pattern at Boulder realizing that if
it all quit now, at least I could make the runway. Flew a tight
pattern and dropped down with 40 degrees of flaps. I can say that
I've never been so happy to be on the ground! I taxied to the pumps
and filled up. Put a total of 44 gallons in. Yes, the gauges were
all wrong - not a surprise. My fuel stick, not exactly a precision
instrument, was off. I still had a little less than an hour's
reserve.

However, it could have gone 180 degrees in the opposite direction if
the head winds were fierce, I didn't lean properly or any number of
other circumstances. I took a needless risk for absolutely no reason
than the dreaded get-home-itis. This was the slap in the face, wake
up call and cold water all in one. I had 5 chances to avoid what
could have been a potential disaster and I just kept going. Never
again will I put myself in this situation. It's not worth the risk
and certainly not the stomach stress!

Dogs can fly. (always with half tanks)
http://www.flyingmutts.com

Alan wrote:

I had 5 chances to avoid what
could have been a potential disaster and I just kept going. Never
again will I put myself in this situation. It's not worth the risk
and certainly not the stomach stress!

Yep. I brought my 150 in on fumes once, skirting a thunderstorm to get home. I
can still taste the bile.

George Patterson
Whosoever bloweth not his own horn, the same shall remain unblown.

Glad it all worked out for you. =Everone= makes a mistake they swear
they would =never= make - not in a million years. One question though -
you took off (the first time) with the intent of getting self-serve
fuel, but when you landed (the first time) didn't want to fool with
self-service. What changed in your mental picture?

Jose
--
Get high on gasoline: fly an airplane.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

I'm one who stretched it too far - http://pad39a.com/gene/breathe.html
.. Glad you didn't - you may not have had as nice a place to put it
down.

I know very well the "I'm fixin' to make a fool of myself" feeling you
describe. I have felt it several times when I got beyond my comfort
level, especially after my forced landing.

Actually, with high gas prices and trying to stretch my trips to
locations with lower prices, I have recently begun much more careful
scrutiny of my fuel and have become more confident when running my
tanks lower. It's nice to KNOW how much time you have.
--
Gene Seibel
Gene & Sue's Aeroplanes - http://pad39a.com/gene/planes.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.


Alan wrote:

Admittedly, I'm the judgemental type who sneers at those stories of
pilots running out of gas 5 minutes from their destination or having
to put down in a corn field because they "thought" they had enough
fuel to make it to the airport. Jeez, how could anyone be that
stupid? WELL, ADD ME TO THE LIST!

My mental picture was not functioning rationally! After my
preflight, I figured that I had enough fuel to get home and didn't
want to "waste" another 15-20 minutes. That's the kind or wrong
thinking that gets one into trouble.


On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 21:16:14 GMT, Jose
wrote:

Glad it all worked out for you. =Everone= makes a mistake they swear
they would =never= make - not in a million years. One question though -
you took off (the first time) with the intent of getting self-serve
fuel, but when you landed (the first time) didn't want to fool with
self-service. What changed in your mental picture?

Jose