Fuel Exhaustion - Are We Set Up To Fail

Our expectations are so low for aircraft fuel level gauging systems, They are hardly ever relied on.

In fact when we educate new pilots this is typically what is said.

• The first one is taken from the AIM

FUEL REMAINING—A phrase used by either pilots or controllers when relating to the fuel remaining on board until actual fuel exhaustion. When transmitting such information in response to either a controller question or pilot initiated cautionary advisory to air traffic control, pilots will state the APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF MINUTES the flight can continue with the fuel remaining.

All reserve fuel SHOULD BE INCLUDED in the time stated, as should an allowance for established fuel gauge system error.

• The second one from the Irish Aviation Authority

Aircraft fuel gauges can be notoriously inaccurate so it more reliable to “dip” the tanks to establish how much fuel is onboard. However, make sure that your dipstick is calibrated to suit your aircraft type, the aircraft is parked on level ground and the fuel level has been allowed to stabilise before you dip.

• The final one from AOPA  Flight Training Magazine

Use the clock - not the fuel quantity indicators on the panel - as your fuel gauge. In other words, plan and track your fuel consumption based on endurance, not range. Unlike range, endurance is not at the mercy of winds. Besides, those fuel gauge indicators probably won't be very accurate except when they read empty - a setting you should never see. 

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In fact the pilot mantra given to prevent Fuel Starvation and Exhaustion is  "PREFLIGHT, PREFLIGHT, PREFLIGHT  

So what do we normally look for in a PREFLIGHT inspection - tires, brakes, oil level, security of the flight controls, condition of the prop, security of the fuel caps.   Basically all the stuff you can't check in flight.

The implication here is - you have only one chance per flight to check your fuel level - & that one chance is at your PREFLIGHT inspection.  - If you avoid that critical step, you are flying on borrowed time buddy.

Here is the rub  - you are supposed to be able to monitor your fuel level throughout your time in the air.

Another Pilot Mantra could just as easily be be "INFLIGHT, INFLIGHT, INFLIGHT.  That INFLIGHT scenario would be the pilot comparing anticipated fuel level, to actual indicated fuel level.  This would be the pilot vigilance stuff, you know the cross checks of fuel remaining from the calculations to what is onboard.  

Fuel Gauges are required instruments and found on all powered aircraft - So yes the FAA actually expected them to work.  ---  I bet you are surprised.

You are, by design, supposed to be able to see how much fuel you have at any time while you are in the air.   It is the law, it really is, and it really is a good idea.

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In 1974 (yes that long ago) the NTSB initiated a study on Fuel Starvation,  in this study,  they found that there were some aircraft that rarely had a fuel starvation event,  and they also found some aircraft that were prone to the issue - Most aircraft as you might guess were average in this regard.

SO what this study pointed out, it didn't really come right out and say it,  but it was pretty clear that fuel exhaustion wasn't just a pilot thing  - 

If it were, pilots being human - some good, some bad & most of them average would equally suffer fuel starvation in any aircraft.  It would not matter which aircraft you flew.

An average pilot in an average aircraft might have a fuel starvation event - but not really that likely.

An average pilot might never experience a fuel starvation in "X" model aircraft, but that same pilot might be assured of a high probability of fuel starvation if he flew "Y" model aircraft 

As General Aviation is slow to change - some of those aircraft are still in production.  In fact some of those aircraft in the study are still flying.

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So what did the Aircraft Manufacturers recommend in the 1974 Report:

• Two manufacturers recommended a separate Low Fuel warning system. 

• One manufacturer recommended that a more accurate and reliable fuel level system be developed. 

• One manufacturer believed that a "one tank system" would be beneficial.

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So what did the NTSB recommend in the 1974 Report:

• Specification for a low fuel level warning that would operate independently of the existing fuel gauging system.

• Specification for a more accurate type fuel quantity gauging system. 

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That was 40 years ago - so 

Where Are We Now! 

I am guessing from the picture,  that we are still on the road to find a solution.

159 Piper PA28's - Have Suffered Fuel Exhaustion in the last 20 yrs.

COVINGTON, TN -

(WMC) – The small plane that went missing around 11 a.m. on Wednesday was found crashed in a wooded area two hours later.

"I really don't understand how he could survive something like that. People are resilient. It just wasn't his time," said pilot Ben Baker, who helped in the search

According to the Tipton County sheriff, the pilot's name is Kent Wingate, 62. Firefighters on the scene say Wingate was unconscious, but his heart rate and blood pressure were stable. He was taken to Regional Medical Center in critical condition.

Wingate and his Piper Archer single engine plane were found near the Hatchie River in Lauderdale County.

The plane went missing as it prepared to land at Covington Municipal Airport. The airport's manager said that Wingate told him he was out of fuel and was going to land the plane; it never landed.
Images from Chopper 5 show the plane wedged in thick trees about two miles north of the airport. The crash site was located by tracking the emergency signal being transmitted from the plane.

"It was so thick back there in the area of the backwater ... Some of the slews, the foliage really thick," said Tipton County Sheriff Pancho Chumley.
A boater on the Hatchie River was flagged down by emergency personnel to take them across the river to the wreckage.


Wingate was flying into town for a funeral. He retired from the United States Air Force where he was an aeronautical engineer.

.According to our NBC affiliate, WDTN, Wingate lives in Xenia, Ohio, which is a suburb of Dayton. He works at Sinclair Community College.

"Kent Wingate is the chair of the Aviation Technology department," Sinclair spokesman Adam Murka said in a written statement. "

Copyright 2014 WMC Action News 5. All rights reserved.  

When Kent left Dayton Wright Brothers airport on Wednesday morning he had calculated his fuel to include the average 20 knot headwind to Covington, TN. 

He stated he would have 13 gallons left in his tanks when he landed which would provide approx. 1.5 hours of available fuel remaining. He topped of the airplane before departure. He flew 3.9 hours at an average fuel burn of 8.5 gallons an hour.

As anyone who’s flown the older Piper aircraft know, the fuel gauges are usually worthless below 1/2 tanks.

So what gives here - & why is this narrative is typical. 

159 Piper Pa28's & 18 Fatalities as a Result of Fuel Starvation

No AD's ........ No Action items - 

Is the FAA and NTSB doing their job or are they just on their way to the crash site to investigate,  According to the NTSB, why bother.

"I think that there are things that should never happen, really the easy things...," NTSB Chairperson Hersman said. "And I think that among the things in the bucket that are easy ... fuel starvation. How many times do our investigators need to investigate an accident like that."

Press Coverage of NTSB Chairperson Barbara Hersman 

If they do look and check,  chances are they would find a fuel sender like this one - and wonder why this belongs in an airworthy aircraft.

Selecting your Fate - Choosing the Proper Tank.

We read so many aviation fuel starvation accident reports and the published responses from AOPA and others  

"On March 12, 2005, a 24,611-hour ATP made a forced landing in an open field after a total loss of engine power while on a visual approach to Runway 13 at Lancaster Airport in Lancaster, Texas. He and the one passenger were not injured.
The pilot did not visually check the fuel tanks prior to takeoff and could not recall "what the fuel gauges indicated"  during the flight.
He thought both auxiliary fuel tanks were full, and both main fuel tanks were almost full.  While descending for the approach, the pilot moved the fuel selector valve from the left main tank to the right main tank" 

Here is where we believe accurate or at least functional fuel level comes into play - The pilot did not look at his gauges - if he had,  and they were operating as designed - He probably would not have switched to an empty fuel tank.

Very shortly after, the engine quit. The pilot unsuccessfully attempted to restart the engine by switching the fuel selector valve back to the left tank and cycling the throttle.  

It is interesting that the neither the FAA nor NTSB tested this aircraft's fuel gauges for operation.  They only tested the engine. 

   We have all become complacent that aircraft fuel gauges can offer little or no assistance to fuel starvation in our mode of transportation.

One aircraft manufacturer has looked at this issue and did something about it - why guess if the tank you are switching to holds fuel.   

Cirrus Aircraft has incorporated accurate fuel level - and with accurate fuel level you may eliminate switching to an empty tank.   

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Fuel Starvation in a Modern Technologically Advanced Aircraft.

It is common to believe that technological advances can mitigate the dangers inherent in operating vehicles.  The automobile airbag is one of the best examples - it was first hard to convince us all we needed one - now every new car has 10's of them.  It was a safety idea that worked.   

One of the most difficult Safety Issues in Aviation - Especially light aircraft is Fuel Exhaustion. 

And we have a strong belief that modern aircraft with modern tools can mitigate this problem.  

There is a definite trust in the pilot community that fuel totalizers (fuel range calculators) mitigate the danger inherent in running out of fuel in a small aircraft.   This is the technological advance intended to help alleviate fuel starvation events for small aircraft.   For those not in the aviation field - you are guessing correctly that running out of fuel in a small aircraft is not a good thing. 

So lets look at a recent Fuel Starvation event in a modern Cirrus SR20.  

The National Transportation Safety Board provides a Probable Cause for this accident that occurred in Parker AZ - 

I included it below -

Before the first flight of the day, the pilot visually checked the airplane’s fuel quantity through the fuel tank filler necks, observing what he believed to be full tanks.  He subsequently checked the fuel gauges, which indicated that both wing tanks were less than half full.  Surmising that the gauges were faulty, the pilot departed on a short flight to a local airport to pick up a passenger.  After picking up the passenger, they departed for a cross-country flight.

So this subject pilot observed full tanks (he actually looked at the fuel in the tank),  and then checked to see what his gauges read.  Then this Cirrus pilot with an "obvious" discrepancy between his observed fuel and his fuel gauge reading,  proceeded on his planned cross-country trip.   

It is my conjecture that he entered full fuel on his fuel totalizer.  The totalizer is a system that uses fuel flow and a pilot entered quantity to provide a range of travel.  Systems like this are common in boating and you see them in your car as a fuel range.   So this pilots "trusted" fuel reporting system supported his  observation.   

This pilot then departed with in his words "faulty gauges"  - and in violation of Federal Law Title 14,  Part 91 -  included below:

§91.7   Civil aircraft airworthiness.
(a) No person may operate a civil aircraft unless it is in an airworthy condition.
(b) The pilot in command of a civil aircraft is responsible for determining whether that aircraft is in condition for safe flight.  The pilot in command shall discontinue the flight when unairworthy mechanical, electrical, or structural conditions occur.

So this pilot operated his aircraft with with an un-airworthy mechanical condition based on his observation of fuel level.  

In fact if you ask a pilot friend if they are currently flying an aircraft with a faulty fuel gauge you will get a nearly unanimous answer that yes in fact they are.

Typically they will soften the blow and let you know, 

• That they have never run out of fuel.
• They can look in their fuel tanks on the ground to see how much fuel they have. 
• They will tell you that a stopwatch will let them know when to land.
• And aircraft typically are operated at one speed - so fuel consumption per hour is fixed.  I have 50 gallons of fuel - we burn 10 gallons an hour - so we can go 5 hours maximum - and today we will only fly 3 hours.
• Some will even tell you that they have a Totalizer - and it's far more accurate than any fuel gauge 

As you can correctly guess - this law, the one that requires working fuel gauges in aircraft, is not enforced.  Nobody is getting busted, and frankly nobody is worried about it either.    

But this pilot didn't break the law -  the fuel gauges were right and his aircraft was in the legal words of the law - airworthy -    The only thing this pilot did was err in his observation of the fuel level in the tank.   Human error it happens all the time  

So a little more conjecture based on what we know of the Cirrus SR20 aircraft   -  This pilot in believing his gauges to be wrong,  he then ignored the the multiple low fuel level messages that occurred during flight.   You could think of these aircraft warnings as a low fuel warning lights - that first come up amber and then change to red as the fuel is being depleted out of the tank.

These low fuel messages were warning him of an impending fuel emergency,  most likely where he could have taken action and landed safely.   But this pilot appeared to have trusted his  "Fuel Range Map -  and his fuel range on that map was based on his erroneous fuel level observation and his range map was counting down from a full tank of fuel.   He might even have carried a stopwatch to let him know at what time he would have run out of fuel.

This is the cultural issue in aviation  - 

• Pilots find it acceptable,  actually common to fly with a faulty fuel gauge.
• Pilots expect that the fuel gauge is misleading and proceed to fly anyway.
• Pilots were trained to ignore their fuel gauge   
• Pilots continue to run out of fuel in their aircraft 

If this pilot trusted his fuel gauge - and then used it as a cross check to his fuel level observation - he would have exited the aircraft on the ground  and re open the fuel tank and reviewed his observation.   In fact as he made a short hop to pick up a passenger -  he could have rechecked the fuel level twice.   If I we use this aircraft's  Pilot Handbook Checklist - a visual tool that pilots use to insure everything is working as it should,  prior to flying - he would have looked at his fuel gauges a minimum of 10 times,  and he then ignored his fuel gauges each and every time.

Fuel Starvation - or running out of fuel is a leading cause of aircraft accident, injury and death.

So what are the FAA, NTSB and the Pilot Organizations doing about this -  

Well, not surprisingly

  They too want to ignore the fuel gauge.

Again nearly all pilots were trained to do so.

In the most recent video & safety bulletin put out by AOPA and a they have placed a lot of effort to train this pilot to visually observe the fuel in his tank. 
Pilots, due to the cultural influence can't grasp the idea that a working fuel gauge could possibly mitigate fuel starvation.
  
It never occurs to them.

And it is really is a head in the sand approach,  As these pilots are all cross checking each other, and sharing their own experience.   

Just like the airbag, we were resistant to add safety, as it added cost, and we doubted the benefit - but the value of the lives it as saved has made it more than worth it.  

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Let's change the culture in aviation and quit making excuses and ignoring equipment that doesn't perform to the aviation standard .

The Excitement of Initiating Change or I Double Down on Dark Horses

Imagine coming up with a new and revolutionary idea.

The challenge and the excitement.  You feel your pulse quicken

The moment you first look at the prototype and realize that you might really be on to something.

You want to share it -

You have a unique vision of the way the world should be in the future.  

You develop it and refine it and when it's ready - you bring it to market 

The world is just waiting to embrace your vision............

.....well frankly no it's not 

The reality goes something like this 

"You're selling what,  you're with who, you say its on new model aircraft.  No I haven't heard about it.   What is it again, aviation fuel gauges that work  - Say again...... how accurate really  - so why didn't the factory talk about it.......something that good you'd think.

Hold on let me put you on the speakerphone......guys listen up - this salesman on the phone here tells me he's got working aircraft fuel gauges for sale ......... Hold on - Dominic here wants to know if they are capacitive ....... yeah......... they are what........ give that to me again.   AN ISO MAGNETO DOO HICKEY - no never heard of it. Lord Kelvin really.

Boy the sales pitch just runs off your tongue doesn't it - Wait Bill in the back wants to know if it comes with a set of free steak knives -   no no send me a brochure - We'll be sure to take a look.

Functioning, Accurate Aviation Fuel Gauges 

• You now have an accurate fuel level sensor. 

• It detects how much fuel is in the tanks at any moment.

• It displays the fuel tank contents on your aircraft MFD screen but is not connected with the fuel management system on the aircraft.

• You must still enter the fuel level you observed in the tanks as you have always done on the MFD.

• The aircraft will use fuel flow data to calculate what the fuel level should be.  It will present that estimate of the fuel tank contents on the MFD.

• The level sensors give a calibrated fuel level - Not just accurate at the top and bottom accurate throughout.  These sensors also output the fuel tank contents to the MFD and then display them side by side with the calculated fuel level.

• These fuel level systems ARE SEPARATE. 

• Both indicate to you the pilot,  the amount of fuel in the tanks.  SEPARATE - But they match

• Got it?    Good.