What Do You Wanna Be in Future
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Operations & Proficiency No. 5
Fuel Awareness
Almost home
You’re almost home. Through your headset the engine beats louder as you wait for the sound of silence, and the knot in your stomach grows larger as time seems to slow down. Your last refueling opportunity is well behind now. It will surely take longer to turn around than to press on, and you wonder if backing off on the power will make a difference. But the airplane’s going so slowly already that you decide to leave the throttle alone. One good thing about this groundspeed: It gives you plenty of time to pick out suitable landing sites—at least in daylight. But night fell an hour ago, and intuition tells you that surviving a forced landing now will be more a matter of luck than skill… This is the kind of scenario that often leads to a fuel exhaustion accident. Through a combination of circumstances and poor decisions, otherwise prudent pilots crash short—often in sight of their destination. Most pilots can recall a time when they dipped into the reserves, and most vow never to do it again. But somebody always does.
In the past decade, more than 1,700 accidents have resulted from poor fuel management.
Safe Pilots. Safe Skies
In 2004, 79 fuel exhaustion accidents occurred, of which four were fatal. In the same year, another 39 accidents (seven fatal) were attributed to fuel starvation, and 18 (five fatal) were a result of fuel contamination. There’s a lot to know about fuel and fuel management. In the following pages we’ll discuss these subjects in detail, but first let’s look at a few things you can do to reduce your chances of having a fuel-related accident: 1. Know How Much Fuel You Have: You can’t know your range unless you know how much fuel you have, but knowing that isn’t always easy. • Think of fuel not in gallons or pounds, but hours and minutes. Why? Because fuel burn is a constant. The engine, barring malfunction, will
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Operations & Proficiency No. 5
Fuel Awareness
Almost home
You’re almost home. Through your headset the engine beats louder as you wait for the sound of silence, and the knot in your stomach grows larger as time seems to slow down. Your last refueling opportunity is well behind now. It will surely take longer to turn around than to press on, and you wonder if backing off on the power will make a difference. But the airplane’s going so slowly already that you decide to leave the throttle alone. One good thing about this groundspeed: It gives you plenty of time to pick out suitable landing sites—at least in daylight. But night fell an hour ago, and intuition tells you that surviving a forced landing now will be more a matter of luck than skill… This is the kind of scenario that often leads to a fuel exhaustion accident. Through a combination of circumstances and poor decisions, otherwise prudent pilots crash short—often in sight of their destination. Most pilots can recall a time when they dipped into the reserves, and most vow never to do it again. But somebody always does.
In the past decade, more than 1,700 accidents have resulted from poor fuel management.
Safe Pilots. Safe Skies
In 2004, 79 fuel exhaustion accidents occurred, of which four were fatal. In the same year, another 39 accidents (seven fatal) were attributed to fuel starvation, and 18 (five fatal) were a result of fuel contamination. There’s a lot to know about fuel and fuel management. In the following pages we’ll discuss these subjects in detail, but first let’s look at a few things you can do to reduce your chances of having a fuel-related accident: 1. Know How Much Fuel You Have: You can’t know your range unless you know how much fuel you have, but knowing that isn’t always easy. • Think of fuel not in gallons or pounds, but hours and minutes. Why? Because fuel burn is a constant. The engine, barring malfunction, will