NASA · Aviation Safety Reporting System
GA pilot reported fuel exhaustion during a cross country flight required them to make an off-airport landing. Pilot stated there were no injuries or damage.
What is ASRS?
The Aviation Safety Reporting System is NASA's voluntary, confidential, non- punitive incident-reporting system, established 1976. Pilots, controllers, dispatchers, and maintenance technicians file reports describing safety- relevant events. NASA de-identifies every report before adding it to the public database. Reports are not investigated by NASA, the FAA, or the NTSB — they represent the reporter's perspective.
Pilot narrative
Verbatim from the de-identified NASA record. First-person account by the
reporter. NASA strips identifying details (names, company, specific time);
anonymization placeholders are ZZZ,
X, Y.
On a cross country flight between Location A and Location B I experienced fuel exhaustion in my aircraft. I was 9 miles from ZZZ when it appeared I had run out of gas in all of my fuel tanks. As I was only approximately 1k ft AGL at the time of exhaustion, I had very little time to deal with the situation at hand. I attempted to make an abandoned airfield just to the north and within the outer ring of ZZZ1's Class Charlie. While maneuvering to make the airfield, and noting my depleting airspeed, I quickly ascertained I best land my aircraft straight ahead, in a farmers field. Landing was uneventful, no aircraft damage occurred, and no injuries whatsoever. After assessing the situation and determining the best course of action, I contacted a local tow service company. They moved my aircraft to the aforementioned airfield. I did a thorough inspection of my aircraft, serviced it with fuel, and proceeded to my original destination (ZZZ). Prior to my next flight, I once again did an inspection, this time more thorough than the last. Once again, there was no damage to the aircraft noted, so I proceeded to fly my aircraft back to Location A, without incident. After returning home, I sat down and thought about what went wrong. Obviously, I had overestimated the amount of fuel in my tanks. I figured I had a good 14 gallons in each of my wingtip tanks. However, after refueling them each with 10 gallons, it appears this is where my overestimating took place. The 10 gallons in each side, to my recollection, appeared to be more than what I had assumed was 14 gallons. I rarely utilize these tanks on a day-to-day basis, so I feel I need to gain a better site picture of what a less-than full wingtip tank looks like. I also plan to construct a dipstick for these tanks, as I don't believe one is available on the open market. It's no excuse, merely an explanation as to why I could've possibly not known how much fuel they contained.
NASA classification — Anomalies
- Aircraft Equipment Problem
- Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural
- Ground Event / Encounter
- Inflight Event / Encounter
NASA classification — Assessments
- Contributing Factors / Situations
- Human Factors
- Primary Problem
- Human Factors
ASRS reports are voluntarily submitted, de-identified by NASA, and represent the reporter's perspective. The presence of reports on a topic cannot be used to infer prevalence in the National Airspace System. The authoritative source is the NASA ASRS Database Online at asrs.arc.nasa.gov ↗.