Cessna 150 (N1701Q) near Cleburne, 1 fatal.

Dry Creek

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Nov 30, 2021
Messages
371
Display Name

Display name:
Dry Creek
Apparent fuel exhaustion has been cited by a couple of sources.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/l...fire/287-47095a95-d770-4f46-b9f4-dc1144bacd66

I remember seeing this plane at the FBO during the short time I was taking lessons at KCPT:
https://kcptflyers.com/n1701q.html

It seemed to be very well maintained and in decent shape when I looked at it last.

A search of the FAA Airmen's database did not have any results under the pilots' name.
The Faa database has him. Don’t put the city or state in and the pilot pops up. All that’s listed is a student certificate from September. Very sad.
 
A search of the FAA Airmen's database did not have any results under the pilots' reported name.
FTFY. Search under just the last name, or last name and first initial.
 
I keep forgetting to just name search. Thanks to those who found the information.
Student pilot it is then, from last September.

The last trace is also available on FlightAware for N1701Q.

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N1701Q

The weather in our area wasn't too bad yesterday evening. VFR, 10SM, 15kts from 120

METAR KCPT 160155Z AUTO 12015KT 10SM CLR 26/19 A2976 RMK A01
 
This plane was in the air for an hour. Sad. Wondering if an undetected fuel leak or just took off without verifying fuel levels.
 
Apparent fuel exhaustion has been cited by a couple of sources.

This plane was in the air for an hour. Sad. Wondering if an undetected fuel leak or just took off without verifying fuel levels.
The story linked in the OP says the plane "erupted into flames". Perhaps that's an exaggeration, but that's still a bit inconsistent with a fuel starvation situation. There might be more to the story.

I know it's rare in a gravity-fed Cessna, but maybe the student pilot didn't have the fuel selector set to "Both"?

ADSB position-only data is also not necessarily the highest-fidelity, so the flight path should be taken with a grain of salt, but some of the maneuvers look like they might have been pretty aggressive.
1715954435392.png
 
Carb icing would be one way for the engine to be out without fuel. A little odd, though. Guess the NTSB will have an idea.
 
150/152 only have on-off fuel selector.
I was going to chime in with the same information. A ninety-degree throw ON/OFF selector, down between the two seats.

In all of the videos and pictures I looked at, there was actually very little fire. It seemed more like an electrical fire than an actual blaze from AvGas.
 
Back
Top