Aircraft Forced Landing After Fuel Exhaustion (N6508B)

Incident Overview and Pilot Actions During the Flight, the pilot reported that he did not perform any fuel consumption calculation before departing on the flight. He estimated that he had about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches of fuel present in the left and right fuel tanks and added 10 gallons of fuel to each fuel tank. He flew to his intermediate stop, picked up his passenger, and departed for his destination airport. Upon leveling the airplane at 1,800 feet AGL, the engine started to run rough. He switched fuel tanks and turned the boost pump on high. The engine smoothed out and he turned the boost pump off. About 3 minutes later the engine started running rough again and he repeated the same steps with negative results. A forced landing was made to the only available landing area, and the airplane collided with a fence post. Examination of the fuel system by the FAA revealed the fuel tanks were not ruptured. One pint of fuel was present in the fuel system. The pilot stated, 'I made a mistake of trusting the fuel gages and ran the airplane out of fuel'.