I have over 6000 hours of flying 95 different kinds of aircraft to include Airplanes Single and Multiengine Land and sea, Rotorcraft Helicopter, Glider, and gyroplanes, DC-3, C500, DA10. I have been a CFI Gold Seal since 1970, and NAFI Master Instructor, All the ground Instructors, Flight Dispatcher, Remote Pilot, and CTO. Ok so much for that.
In 1986 I was working for a check hauler flying various single engine aircraft and one night on my way back to Orlando from Miami, while in descent I changed tanks in a Cessna 210 as per the descent check list to the heavier indicated tank. The time was midnight, and Orlando Intl was shooting Cat II approaches while Orlando Executive was at my minimums of 200/ 1/2 mile. I left cruise power on and booted my speed up to get to the OM before the weather was declared below my minimums. While in descent at 2300 feet and 4.5 miles SW of ORL the engine would down. While flying above the fog, I switched tanks back to the original and turned on the boost pump, pushed in the mixture and nothing happened. My first call to ATC was to approach control and I basically said "Flight Express 117 has an engine problem. He first started to turn me toward the ILS at MCO, and I replied to just aim me at the airport. He stopped my turn at a heading of 060 while I tried to figure out the problem. I was indicating 200 pounds in the left tank and 300 pounds in the right tank. It quit on the right tank so I went back to left tank even with the imbalance. The controller made calls saying I was an emergency. Regulations say the pilot, controller, or Dispatcher can declare an emergency. I slowly let my speed decrease in descent as I wanted to have the energy to jump over something if I didn’t like what I saw. The controller asked if my engine was running to which I replied “NO”. He continued the vectors and in my final turn to 360 I finally saw the runway lights at about 75 feet. I slapped the gear handle down and got a green light about 5 seconds before I touched down and rolled out. Now I stayed with AC the whole way as he coordinated the emergency. After coming to a stop I remembered that the big guys were using this runway so I opened the door and stepped out with my headset still on. I asked if the big guys were still coming in and was told no but that CFR was out there looking for me in the fog. The controller had my aircraft towed to the FBO on the west side and I finally got to look it over. I reported to our Chief Pilot as per the regulations with a report that I thought, after looking in the fuel tanks that the right one showed 300# but when I looked it looked empty. Chief Pilot told me to fill it up and run it, if I was satisfied to take off and bring it to Executive. I did as instructed. The next day the tank sensor was determined to be bad and we went to a manual. dip tube, tank check. The FAA investigated and conclusion was I did a heck of a job getting it in with no damage. Later I found out it takes about 4 minutes and 30 seconds to reprime the fuel system if fuel is exhanusted in a Cessna 210. My flight from engine failure to touch down and roll out was 3 minutes and 10 seconds, not enough time to reprime.
Conclusion: Fly the aircraft, communicate the problem, take action that is required, have a mental picture of what is going on and your options. I needed power to stay on an ILS so that was out. An ASR approach was the only option. By going to the airport it was open and I could land on grass. Never give up.
The next day I took the Controller a bottle of good Scotch and got a copy of the ATC tape. I still have it today. My father who was my primary instructor listened to it and I could see a since of pride of what he pounded into me as a student pilot.
I am sure the B-17 pilots were doing everything in their power to bring the bird back for a landing and something beyond their control finally brought them down. It is a shame they lost their lives and a beautiful aircraft. That is a second B-17 lost, the one in Illinois a few years back, and it just makes the flying war birds even more rare. Airplanes are mean to fly, and being put in museums just preserves their bones.