"Out of fuel, out of hope: 'Help, I'm in the water'"

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

"Chris" wrote:

Its all speculation, the poor planning was one issue, poor execution of
his way out of the problem was the other.

Poor planning is a certainty, there was no proper execution out of this
problem.

Given the time of the accident (close to midnight) I'm curious about
where he might have dropped in for fuel along the way at that time of
night. He was visiting near Syracuse, NY, and it looks like about 575
nmi to Watertown, WI, which is near the maximum range of a Piper Archer,
obviously depending on configuration.

Is this perhaps simply a case of get-home-itis, and he pushed things too
far in trying to make his destination non-stop that evening?