First Flight Incident

Kelvin

Kelvin

En-Route
Joined
Dec 2, 2006
Messages
3,272
Location
Garner NC
Display Name
Display name:
KTD
My hanger partner and CFII sold one of his 172's.

A CFI came to ferry it back to Texas. He left Fayetteville NC and ran out of gas about 1/4 mile short of the runway in Birmingham Alabama.

According to my buddy, he was .25 statute miles of a new endurance record. Well not to be outdone...look at the time aloft on these two flights.

4:13 aloft
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7020Q/history/20200722/1719Z/KFAY/KBHM

The thing is, the guy takes off the very next day and stays aloft for 4:17

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2020/07/cessna-172l-skyhawk-n7020q-incident.html
 
I hit VFR reserve at just under four hours in my Skyhawk, and never planned a leg over 3.0, because landing short due to fuel exhaustion is shameful. Just shameful.
 
One year flying to Oshkosh I got caught in the circling mess around one of their lakes. I kept trying and trying until I noticed my little flight clock reading 5 hours. I diverted and landed at the nearest airport. I still had my VFR reserve, but had I done one more circle around that Odin-forsaken lake I wouldn't have. That clock is now busted, and I really should replace it. It did save my bacon once.
 
Reinforces my view of ferry pilots...them boys are cowboys.
 
It shows as a 172L which is a 150hp with 42 gallons. Normal burn of 8gph should have left a reasonable reserve with those flight times. Maybe ran it hard and rich or wasn't full at departure. The report doesn't mention fuel exhaustion. Is it possible it was something else?
 
Kelvin said:
My hanger partner and CFII sold one of his 172's.

A CFI came to ferry it back to Texas. He left Fayetteville NC and ran out of gas about 1/4 mile short of the runway in Birmingham Alabama.

According to my buddy, he was .25 statute miles of a new endurance record. Well not to be outdone...look at the time aloft on these two flights.

4:13 aloft
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7020Q/history/20200722/1719Z/KFAY/KBHM

The thing is, the guy takes off the very next day and stays aloft for 4:17

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2020/07/cessna-172l-skyhawk-n7020q-incident.html
Click to expand...

Wonder how far out he was when the engine quit. Pic shows 30 to 40 degrees of flaps. Ya gotta wonder if it happened far enough out to maybe clean up and make that last 1/4 mile.
 
Headwinds? Running rich? Not that I would push it that far, but 4:15 should be well within C-172 L's range.

When I started my IR training, I also needed cross country hours. The CFI I was using (who had also been my PP CFI) planned and had us do a round robin, Orlando Exec (KORL) -> Craig (KCRG) -> Gainesville (KGNV) -> Ocala (KOCF) back to Orlando. With approaches at each. ~4:30 flight time. I was quite puckered up on the last leg from Ocala to Orlando. I raised the question and he said we're burning around 7 gph. We'll be fine. And we were. Had about 10 gallons left out of 39 usable. We did that flight 3 times and got very consistent numbers.

In retrospect, I wouldn't do it again mainly because 4 1/2 hours of simulated instrument is just way to much for a new IR student at once. I did fine flying the plane even on all the approaches, but stopped even trying to handle radios by Daytona the first flight, Craig the second flight and somewhere between Craig and Gainesville the 3rd. And was I beat when we landed. My oh my!
 
luvflyin said:
Wonder how far out he was when the engine quit. Pic shows 30 to 40 degrees of flaps. Ya gotta wonder if it happened far enough out to maybe clean up and make that last 1/4 mile.
Click to expand...

Then again, maybe he ran out of fuel before deploying any flap, and hung it all out when he realized he was still going to be short...
 
Kelvin said:
The thing is, the guy takes off the very next day and stays aloft for 4:17
Click to expand...
You kinda have to ask yourself, if your CFI is good at teaching you how to crash because he's had so much experience with crashing himself, is that a CFI you really want to be working with?
 
JamesA320 said:
Don’t people need to pee?
Click to expand...
s97pq710y8q11.jpg
 
Flybuddy said:
It shows as a 172L which is a 150hp with 42 gallons. Normal burn of 8gph should have left a reasonable reserve with those flight times. Maybe ran it hard and rich or wasn't full at departure. The report doesn't mention fuel exhaustion. Is it possible it was something else?
Click to expand...
"Normal burn" when you don't have to buy fuel, or even fly that bird again? It was likely firewalled, burning ten or so GPH.
 
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