Incident Overview
A Piper PA-18 aircraft was involved in an incident that began with a preflight engine start and ended with a forced landing on soft muskeg. The pilot-in-command reported that he started the engine with the fuel selector positioned to the right tank, then switched it to the left tank before completing the run-up and takeoff. However, post-incident examination revealed a discrepancy between the pilot's intended setting and the actual position of the selector.
Examination Findings
Inspection of the aircraft showed that the fuel selector was in the OFF position. When the pilot was asked to identify the selector's position, he stated it was in the left tank position. The Piper PA-18 fuel selector system features a small pointer and a large handle. The pointer is designed to indicate the selected fuel tank; it must align with the tank in use. In this instance, the pointer was pointing to OFF, while the handle was positioned over the left tank mark indicating the left tank selection.
Forced Landing
The fuel starvation resulting from the selector being in the OFF position caused an engine failure in flight. The pilot performed a forced landing onto soft muskeg terrain. Upon touchdown, the aircraft nosed over. The incident did not result in any reported injuries to the pilot.
Conclusion
The fuel selector's pointer and handle were misaligned, with the pointer indicating OFF and the handle indicating left tank. This discrepancy led to the selector being in the OFF position during flight, contrary to the pilot's perception. The resulting fuel exhaustion caused the engine to fail, necessitating the forced landing.