Cessna 'incident'

(X-posted to ukrm, where there are a few pilots.)

Does that count as a notifiable incident or anything? Either in the US
or UK? Or is it a case of "any landing you an walk away from...."?

 

Every day story of life at Ryan Air!

Boxerboy

PS Welcome back to Gods Country

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

Not in the UK. No damage, no injuries, and I'm assuming no emergency was
declared.

If the CAA were to find out they'd be deeply unimpressed. They take a
*very* dim view of anyone who runs out of fuel.

 

Which begs another question. Are there any small civil aircraft with
have a 1200 Bandit-like small fuel range? And if so, which ones?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, The Older

Many (most) light aicraft are unable to fly with full-tanks and a full
load of passengers.

Two pie-eaters in a Cessna 150 for example, and you're *very*
fuel-limited if you want to stay legal.

So the question's hard to answer accurately. Whilst big tanks may be
fitted, you can't fill them unless you want to taxy to your destination.

Fuel planning is a big part of flight planning. You know what the thing
burns, you know how long it'll take you to get there, and you *should*
dip the tanks to see what's on board (fuel gauges are usually pretty
useless). Allow for diversions, and then add some for luck.

People still run out quite regularly though.

 

Safety related so definitely reportable.
The important bit is missing - why did it happen.
Possible causes include trusting the guages instead of dipping the tanks
and failing to correctly lean the mixture to the weak side of peak EGT
in the cruise.

Confession is good for the soul.

 

On this thread, news here in Sydney is telling of a light aircraft
prang not far from me this morning. Not much detail but apparently the
aircraft is wedged in someone's backyard. The pilot and passenger
walked away from it. Fucking lucky. Had one a few weeks back that
tried to put it down on a motorway but hit power lines, veered off
into an embankment and burst into flames. Both died. More sad is that
it was an aero medical flight with a nurse on board.

But on the fuel thing, I recall when I was doing my flying training a
schoolmate of mine was as well. When making practiced forced landings
you go through the procedure of pretending to turn the fuel off. Ross
actually turned the fuel off. But as the engine was at idle at the
time, there was enough fuel in the lines for the engine to keep
turning over. But as he made approach to the paddock he had picked, he
and the instructor were low enough that it was time to power up and
get out of there. Open throttle. No fuel. Oops. Time to land in said
paddock Thankfully he had set up the practice landing well.

 

And again on aircraft fuel threads. I was making an approach to a
primary control airfield. I was on downwind approach, alongside the
airfield but a few hundred feet to the west of the strip (which is a
jet strip). As I descended to 1000ft AGL I reached over to pull
carburettor heat on and as a slight design stupidity in Piper
Cherokees had the carb heat lever and the mixture control in almost
identical levers right next to each other, I pulled the mixture
control back to cut off didn't I? As the engine spluttered I realised
what I had done and rammed the lever back up again. But as we were on
approach and over a heavily wooded area, it would have been fun and
games to get the aircraft down safely. Mind you, being a jet strip, I
reckon the go would have been just veer off to the left and do a
downwind landing on a very long runway. Certainly got my attention
that day though.

 

or irregularly.

The Gimli Glider comes to mind.

 

good call...very vaguely familiar.

 

It makes me think that LotR could have been wrapped up in a half-hour
sitcom if they'd had a sensible means of transport.

 

Whilst chatting on their mobile phones running Android Frodo.

 

The Transat flight that ran out completely over the mid-Atlantic was
better, mind.

 

But they did. The eagles that brought Frodo and his lover, Sam
back from Orodruin could have taken them there in the first place.

 

No, they were only able to overfly Mordor airspace once the ATC
systems and fast interceptors were disabled.

 

What is it with canadians running out of fuel over the atlantic..have
proper failure like everyone else. sheesh they just gotta be special.

 

heh.

Is it just me or is Pip reminiscent of a taller Gimli?

 

Even if the Winged Nazgul were distracted, I'll bet Sauron kept an Eye
on them.

 

This is not the first time that has been ... ummm ... levelled at me,
you know. I prefer to draw comparisons with Nick Nolte, for perverse
and personal reasons.

 

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2934150144/nm0000560

yeah, I can see that.