GA SMA FUEL EXHAUSTION OFF ARPT LNDG ON DIRT ROAD ON SOUTH RIM OF GCN.

1988-11 · NASA ASRS report 97483

Date: 1988-11 · Aircraft: Small Aircraft; High Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear

Anomalies: deviation-track-heading-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-far|other-airspace-violation-entry-or-exit|other-unspecified

Synopsis

GA SMA FUEL EXHAUSTION OFF ARPT LNDG ON DIRT ROAD ON SOUTH RIM OF GCN.

Narrative

I LEFT SGU WITH FULL TANKS ON A XCOUNTRY FLT 11/88. MY ROUTING WAS SGU DIRECT PGA DIRECT BULLFROG BASIN; UT; WHERE I LANDED. FROM BULLFROG I FLEW DIRECT PGA AND PLANNED TO FLY DIRECT TO KNB FOR A FUEL STOP. OVER PGA I ERRONEOUSLY ENTERED 210 DEGS IN MY OBS INSTEAD OF 260 DEGS; AND THUS BEGAN TO FLY THE WRONG HDG. I REALIZED MY ERROR AS I CROSSED OVER THE 9000 FT ELEVATION OF THE KAIBAB PLATEAU. I CONSIDERED MY OPTIONS AND DECIDED THE BEST WAS TO FLY DIRECT TO GCN. I KNEW AT THIS TIME I WAS 5-10 MINS INTO MY 30 MINS RESERVE FUEL. I CALLED GCN TWR AND ADVISED THEM OF MY POS; AND INTENTIONS; THE TWR ASKED FOR MY ALT; I RESPONDED THAT I WAS AT 9500 FT MSL. THE TWR THEN ADVISED ME THAT I WAS BELOW THE 14500 FT TO SURFACE RESTR AIRSPACE. THE TWR THEN ASKED IF I WAS AWARE OF THIS RESTRICTION. I REPLIED NEGATIVE. (MY SECTIONAL DID SHOW THE RESTR AIRSPACE FROM 9000 FT MSL TO SURFACE; I LATER LEARNED THAT MY SECTIONAL WAS A COUPLE OF MONTHS OUT OF DATE.) I FLEW ACROSS THE CANYON; AND 2 OR 3 MINS AFTER REACHING THE S SIDE OF THE CANYON MY ENG LOST ALL PWR. I QUICKLY DETERMINED THE CAUSE TO BE FUEL EXHAUSTED AND CONTACTED GCN TWR. I CALLED MAYDAY AND ADVISED THE TWR THAT I WAS ON THE 300 DEG R OFF OF GCN VOR; 2 OR 3 MI IN FROM THE RIM; AND THAT I WAS GOING TO LAND ON A DIRT ROAD THAT I COULD SEE IN FRONT OF ME. A SMA FOLLOWED THAT RADIAL OUT AND SPOTTED ME 15 MI NW OF GCN. HE RPTED TO THE TWR THAT THE LNDG WAS GOOD AND THAT I WAS OK. AFTER TALKING WITH THE LCL AUTHORITIES AND FILLING OUT SOME RPTS; I ASKED IF IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO GET SOME FUEL SO THAT I COULD FLY OVER TO GCN. WE CHKED OVER THE PERFORMANCE CHARTS AND DETERMINED A SAFE TKOF COULD BE MADE. I ASKED IF THE FAA WAS AWARE OF THE INCIDENT; AND WAS TOLD THAT THEY WERE; AND THAT THEY NEEDED NO FURTHER INFO. AFTER A THOROUGH PREFLT AND THE ADDITION OF 8 GALS OF FUEL; I PERFORMED A SOFT FIELD TKOF AND FLEW DIRECT TO GCN; WHERE I TOPPED THE TANKS OFF. I THEN FLEW AROUND THE RESTR AIRSPACE TO THE NE AND FLEW TO PGA; WHERE I TOPPED THE TANKS AGAIN. FINALLY I FLEW FROM PGA DIRECT TO KNB; AND DIRECT TO SGU.

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.