An A36 pilot landed off airport when the engine quit because of fuel starvation after the left wing ...

Attributes
ACN	1020997
Time
Date	201206
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Bonanza 36
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Direct
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Fuel Tank Cap
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 20 Flight Crew Total 970 Flight Crew Type 110
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Ground Event / Encounter Ground Strike - Aircraft Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue

Narrative:

I took off and had flight following during the flight and no issues noted during the trip. ATC released me to contact my destination airport; and I was descending out of 11;500 ft. When I was at 8;000 ft and about 20 miles northwest of the airport; I was planning my visual approach to the airport and the engine abruptly lost power. I initially advanced the throttle and mixture and switched to the right tank. I was about 500 ft AGL and realized I needed to land the airplane so I put the gear down and turned into the wind which was blowing 240 degrees according to ASOS. I made a soft field landing the best I could in the sagebrush but the nosewheel folded under the engine and the prop dug into the ground causing a sudden stop. I was uninjured. I noticed there was streaking behind the left fuel cap and the left tank was empty when I took the cap off and looked. The fuel gauge; while I was in the air; read approximately half full. There was about half a tank of fuel in the right tank on my inspection after the landing.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A36 pilot landed off airport when the engine quit because of fuel starvation after the left wing fuel cap streamed fuel while the right tank was half full.

Narrative: I took off and had flight following during the flight and no issues noted during the trip. ATC released me to contact my destination airport; and I was descending out of 11;500 FT. When I was at 8;000 FT and about 20 miles northwest of the airport; I was planning my visual approach to the airport and the engine abruptly lost power. I initially advanced the throttle and mixture and switched to the right tank. I was about 500 FT AGL and realized I needed to land the airplane so I put the gear down and turned into the wind which was blowing 240 degrees according to ASOS. I made a soft field landing the best I could in the sagebrush but the nosewheel folded under the engine and the prop dug into the ground causing a sudden stop. I was uninjured. I noticed there was streaking behind the left fuel cap and the left tank was empty when I took the cap off and looked. The fuel gauge; while I was in the air; read approximately half full. There was about half a tank of fuel in the right tank on my inspection after the landing.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.