FLYING HIS SMA WITH A KNOWN AND UNLOGGED FUEL SYS ANOMALY; THE RPTR SUFFERED FUEL STARVATION AND MADE A DEAD STICK; OFF ARPT LNDG.

2004-05 · NASA ASRS report 616986

Date: 2004-05 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft · Phase: climb

Anomalies: aircraft-equipment-problem-critical|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-mel-cdl|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-maintenance|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far

Synopsis

FLYING HIS SMA WITH A KNOWN AND UNLOGGED FUEL SYS ANOMALY; THE RPTR SUFFERED FUEL STARVATION AND MADE A DEAD STICK; OFF ARPT LNDG.

Narrative

MY AIRPLANE HAS 4 FUEL TANKS. 3 TANKS WERE FULL AND 1 WAS EMPTY. I DID NOT FILL THE R TIP TANK BECAUSE THIS FUEL WAS MOVING FROM THE R TIP TO THE L MAIN TANK AND GOING OUT THE OVERFLOW. AFTER TKOF; THE AIRPLANE WAS HVY ON THE L SIDE AND REQUIRED A LOT OF R AILERON. I DECIDED TO BURN SOME FUEL FROM THE L TIP TANK TO BALANCE THE AIRPLANE. I MOVED THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE TO THE EMPTY TANK INSTEAD OF THE FULL TANK. THE ENG STOPPED AND I STARTED THE EMER PROCS. CHKED FUEL PUMP; MAGNETOS; CALLED CHANDLER ATC AND LOOKED FOR A PLACE TO LAND. I MADE A PLT ERROR BY NOT CHKING THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE. I MADE A PLT ERROR BY FLYING THE ACFT WITH A KNOWN FUEL PROB IN THE R TIP TANK. WE MADE A SUCCESSFUL LNDG IN A FIELD. THE AIRPLANE WAS INSPECTED; AND THE PROB WAS IDENTED. THE AIRPLANE WAS RESTARTED AND FLOWN TO CHANDLER. TO PREVENT THIS IN THE FUTURE; I WILL NEED TO BRUSH UP ON MY EMER PROCS. I SHOULD HAVE CHKED THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE (PLT ERROR). IN ADDITION; I NEED TO QUESTION MYSELF AND ASK IF THIS AIRPLANE IS AIRWORTHY WHEN 1 TANK ISN'T FUNCTIONING PROPERLY.

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.