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 .
