Fuel Exhaustion During Emergency Landing (N6270E)

Incident Overview and Pilot Report An airport unicom operator stated that he was in radio contact with the pilot when the pilot reported being out of fuel and executing an emergency landing about 10 miles north of the airport. The pilot said he departed BTF with 38 gallons of usable fuel on board for a 350-nautical-mile trip, which he reportedly had made many times before. ## Fuel Planning and Enroute Conditions The pilot said the typical enroute time for the trip was 3.5 to 4.0 hours, with a fuel consumption of 24 to 28 gallons. After takeoff, the pilot changed the fuel selector to the left tank and ran it dry, a procedure he typically used for this trip. The pilot noted that he encountered headwinds enroute and that the left tank went dry earlier than normal, although the early switch did not cause any concern. ## Time of Accident At the time of the accident, the estimated elapsed time enroute was 4 hours and 40 minutes.