PLT FLIES LONG ENOUGH TO BE LOW ON FUEL DURING TIME OF WX WITH LOW MINIMUMS AT DEST.

1996-02 · NASA ASRS report 329619

Date: 1996-02 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear

Anomalies: inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence|other-unspecified

Synopsis

PLT FLIES LONG ENOUGH TO BE LOW ON FUEL DURING TIME OF WX WITH LOW MINIMUMS AT DEST.

Narrative

I LANDED WITH 15-30 MINS OF FUEL DEPENDING ON WHETHER YOU BELIEVE THE BOOK OR THE FOLKS THAT BUILD THE AIRPLANE. I DO NOT KNOW IF I HAVE 80 GALS OR 73 GALS AVAILABLE FOR USE. THE WX AT MY DEST AS LOW IFR. I HAD LEFT LEBANON; NH; AT APPROX XA05 LCL TIME. I FILED RNAV DIRECT; I WAS CLRED AS FILED; BUT WAS TOLD TO EXPECT AN ENRTE CHANGE. I WAS ASKED IF I WANTED THE E OR W RTE FOR THE FLT; I TOOK THE E RTE. (MISTAKE ONE.) I FLEW DIRECT GDM; DIRECT ORW; V16; JFK; V1; PEAPS; DEST WWD. MY GND SPD WAS BTWN 95 AND 100 KTS WITH A TRUE AIRSPD OF 135-137 KTS. I HAD STOPPED AT CAPE MAY IN WILDWOOD; NJ; FOR BIOLOGICAL REASONS. I HAD ASKED THE APCH CTLR IF THEY WERE STILL OPEN AND HE REPLIED HE BELIEVED SO. I LANDED IN A HVY XWIND. PARKED THE AIRPLANE AND ENTERED THE OPS BUILDING. ALL THE LIGHTS WERE ON; BUT NOBODY WAS THERE. I DID MY BUSINESS; WENT LOOKING FOR A PHONE; FOUND NO NUMBERS FOR AFTER HRS FUEL SVC; CALLED FLT SVC; FILED; AND WENT OUT TO MY AIRPLANE. THE TIME I WAS ON THE GND I WAS CONCERNED ABOUT MY AIRPLANE; THE WIND WAS BLOWING HARD; APPROX 20 KTS. I OWN A STOL TAIL DRAGGER. I HAD VISIONS OF FINDING IT UPSIDE DOWN IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING. I CLBED INTO THE AIRPLANE; TAXIED; DID RUN-UP AND TOOK OFF. I BELIEVE I HAD APPROX 2 HRS OF FUEL LEFT ON BOARD FOR A FLT THAT SHOULD TAKE A LITTLE OVER AN HR. I HAD BEEN IN THE AIR FOR APPROX 4 HRS PRIOR TO LNDG IN CAPE MAY. I FOLLOWED MY ROUTING FROM CAPE MAY SIE-V308-OTT-DIRECT; DEST W49. CULPEPER (W49) WHICH ONLY HAS NON-PRECISION APCHS; WAS BELOW MINIMUMS. I TOLD THE CTLR I WOULD TRY AN APCH INTO CULPEPER; THEN I WOULD BE LOW ON FUEL. HE SUGGESTED I NOT BOTHER (GOOD SUGGESTION). THE CLOSEST ARPT WITH A PRECISION APCH WAS MANASSAS; IN THE PROCESS OF BEING VECTORED FOR THE APCH; MANASSAS WENT BELOW MINIMUMS. DULLES WAS MY LAST HOPE. I WAS PREPARED TO FLY THE ILS TO THE GND IF NECESSARY. I WAS GIVEN PRIORITY HANDLING AND WAS VECTORED FOR THE ILS RWY 19R. IT WENT BELOW MINIMUMS; I WAS TOLD TO EXPECT ILS RWY 19L; IT WENT BELOW MINIMUMS; RWY 19R WAS AGAIN USABLE. I INTERCEPTED THE LOC AND GS. I SAW THE RWY LIGHTS AT DECISION HT AND LANDED SAFELY. I SPENT SEVERAL HRS TRYING TO DETERMINE HOW I GOT INTO THIS SIT. SEVERAL ISSUES WERE A FACTOR. 1) WINDS WERE STRONGER THAN PREDICTED; GIVING ME A GREATER HEADWIND. 2) THE PHONE NUMBER FOR AFTER HRS FUEL WAS IN THE ARPT FACILITY DIRECTORY; WHICH I HAD WITH ME; BUT NEVER LOOKED AT UNTIL I GOT HOME. I HAD GOTTEN INTO THE HABIT OF THINKING EVERYTHING I NEEDED WAS IN THE GPS. 3) I SHOULD HAVE BACK TRACKED TO ATLANTIC CITY; PAID A FORTUNE FOR GAS AND THEN CONTINUED. I DIDN'T WANT TO BECAUSE IT WAS NOT TOWARD MY DEST AND GAS WAS EXPENSIVE. 4) I PASSED UP SEVERAL GOOD ARPTS; SOME OF WHICH WERE VFR; BUT WITHOUT FUEL AVAILABLE TILL MORNING. I SHOULD HAVE PUT DOWN FOR THE NIGHT. 5) THE LONGER I FLEW THE MORE TIRED I BECAME. MY COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS WERE DIMINISHING. THEY SAY YOU ALWAYS LEARN THE MOST BEFORE YOU SCREW UP REALLY BIG. I LEARNED MORE THAN I WOULD HAVE LIKED THAT EVENING.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

Loading the flight search…

Frequently asked questions

How do I search flights by aircraft type on FlightFinder?

Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.

Which aircraft types can I filter by?

We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.

Is FlightFinder free to use?

Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.

Where does the route data come from?

Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.