Many years ago a friend of mine who owned a Chevy Nova wanted to know exactly how far he could go on a tank of gas. So he put a five-gallon can of gas in the trunk and drove until the tank ran dry. I happened to be riding with him to a Civil Air Patrol meeting when the engine sputtered and died. We pulled over to the side of the road, poured the five gallons into the gas tank and continued on our way. I don't remember how many miles my friend said he got from that full tank of gas, but the accident we're going to discuss reminded me of his experiment.How many times have you driven with the fuel gauge hovering on "empty" and have passed a gas station for one reason or another? I would say that most of us are guilty of this at least once or twice. If we run out of gas, we simply pull off to the side of the road like my friend did. It might be an inconvenience because most of us don't carry five-gallon cans of gas in the back of the car, but it would be unusual for someone to get hurt or killed just because they ran out of gas.The ramifications of running the tanks dry in an airplane are far more serious and our flight instructors tell us this from the first day we set foot into a cockpit. Most of us heed that lesson but there are always some who don't. None of us can afford to pass up an airport where fuel is available because we think we can make it to our destination. If we don't know for sure that we have the fuel on board to get where we want to go then we are bound by good judgment and common sense to make a fuel stop and get some more, even if it means we will be late for Cousin George's third wedding.The pilot of a Beech B60 Duke apparently thought he had enough fuel to make it to his destination, but he miscalculated by about 13.5 miles. The pilot had departed Houston's Hobby Airport (KHOU) on an IFR flight to Dekalb-Peachtree Airport (KPDK) in Atlanta but he would never make it. Three hours and 13 minutes later the airplane crashed half a mile short of the runway at Fulton County Airport (KFTY), an impromptu alternate and just 13 miles from KPDK. The pilot, who was the only person on board the aircraft, was killed.It would seem that this is an open and shut case of fuel exhaustion, and it is. Even so, there is more to the story, facts that can't help but raise questions about the pilot's attitude towards fuel planning and safety.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/flight-safety/probable-cause-21-no-pulling-over