Circumstances
On Friday, September 14, 2012, at 12:15 local time, a Robin DR400-180 (registration F-GAOU) operated by a flying club departed from runway 05 at Nangis Les Loges for a local flight of less than one hour. The pilot and one passenger were on board. At approximately 600 ft, shortly after leveling off, the engine abruptly stopped. The pilot activated the electric fuel pump and turned the fuel selector to the left. After a few seconds with no engine restart, he returned the selector to its initial right position. He executed a left turn and made a forced landing in a field about 150 meters from runway 23 threshold. During the landing roll, the landing gear broke.
Aircraft Information
The aircraft was equipped with two wing tanks (40 liters each) and a main tank (110 liters). After the accident, the right wing tank was empty, the left wing tank contained approximately 30 liters, and the main tank contained about 40 liters. The fuel selector was found in the "right tank" position. Markings on the selector were partially worn. The aircraft also had three vertical fuel gauges on the right side of the instrument panel and an orange low-fuel warning light for each tank, located under the left side of the panel.
Damage prevented calibration checks of the gauges. However, the wing tank gauges and indicators were removed and tested. The left wing gauge was heavily corroded and its low-level function did not work. The right wing gauge was not designed for the DR400 and lacked a low-level function. The aircraft owner was unaware that the low-fuel alarms were inoperative. Due to a succession of owners and maintenance providers, the reason for the installation of a non-standard gauge could not be determined.
Pilot Information
The pilot, aged 67, held a private pilot license since 1976. He had about 410 total flight hours, including 2 hours 30 minutes in the previous three months. He had approximately 60 hours on the club's DR400-120 and 3 hours on the DR400-180 (all on F-GAOU). He was checked out on the DR400-180 in November 2010, but his last flight on that model was in May 2011. Before the flight, the pilot saw an instructor who had just flown F-GAOU and was told there was sufficient fuel. During the pre-flight inspection, the pilot did not visually check the fuel level because he thought F-GAOU had only one tank and could not visually verify the main tank quantity. He reported seeing only one fuel gauge showing three-quarters full before engine start, noting that his tall passenger may have partially blocked the instrument panel. The pilot used the aircraft checklists, which included items for checking wing tank caps, fuel gauges before start, and setting the fuel selector to "main open" before start and takeoff. The pilot mistakenly believed the "right" position corresponded to the main tank.
Club Operations and Maintenance
The club operated five aircraft of different types. The pilot normally flew the club's DR400-120, which had only a main tank and a two-position fuel valve (open/closed). The club's DR400-120 was undergoing scheduled maintenance, so the club had been renting F-GAOU from a company since September 2, 2012. About 15 flight hours had been logged with no reported anomalies. Club rules required pilots to have flown the specific model or a similar one within the previous two months to act as pilot-in-command. The club president considered the DR400-120 and DR400-180 as different types and acknowledged that compliance with the currency rule could not be enforced.
Investigation Findings
The engine stoppage resulted from fuel starvation. The pilot took off with the fuel selector positioned on an empty right tank. During the engine failure, the pilot may have inadvertently moved the selector one notch left to the "closed" position, preventing a restart. Contributing factors included: the pilot's lack of recent experience on the DR400-180; partial erasure of markings on the fuel selector; the pilot's overreliance on the instructor's fuel information; non-functioning low-fuel warning lights; and the club's inability to verify pilot currency for the rented aircraft.
The investigation noted that the apparent simplicity of a local flight may lead to less rigorous preparation. It also highlighted that during the previous flight, only the right tank had been used, and the instructor and student landed with very little fuel in the selected tank without realizing it.