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Da-42 instructor and student landed with minimum fuel after electing to bypass a planned fuel stop in order to return to departure airport on time.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1087557 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201305 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | DAB.Airport |
| State Reference | FL |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Light | Night |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | DA42 Twin Star |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 91 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Flight Plan | VFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Instructor |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 290 Flight Crew Total 1140 Flight Crew Type 150 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue |
Narrative:
While flying back from a long cross-country flight and due to poor planning on my side; we landed with minimum fuel in the tanks. This event could have been easily fixed if I had followed the original flight plan and stopped for refueling as planned. The flight was planned by me; the flight instructor; and [included] a stop for fuel.approximately 30 minutes after takeoff I saw that we probably wouldn't make it on time back to our original point of departure; so I decided to proceed direct without a fuel stop. During the entire flight back my student and I kept monitoring our fuel level and decided that if by any chance we couldn't comply with the regulations (because of any unforecasted weather; ATC delays; etc) we would stop and refuel. I made the decision to continue since our fuel level indicated that we have enough to get to [destination] and for an extra 1 hour of flight time. Two days after the flight; while the airplane was being refueled; it came to my attention that the airplane was refueled with 75 gallons of fuel. The total usable fuel for 76.4; which means that we landed with only 1.4 gallons although the fuel indication showed us that we had almost 3 gallons in each tank.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: DA-42 instructor and student landed with minimum fuel after electing to bypass a planned fuel stop in order to return to departure airport on time.
Narrative: While flying back from a long cross-country flight and due to poor planning on my side; we landed with minimum fuel in the tanks. This event could have been easily fixed if I had followed the original flight plan and stopped for refueling as planned. The flight was planned by me; the flight instructor; and [included] a stop for fuel.Approximately 30 minutes after takeoff I saw that we probably wouldn't make it on time back to our original point of departure; so I decided to proceed direct without a fuel stop. During the entire flight back my student and I kept monitoring our fuel level and decided that if by any chance we couldn't comply with the regulations (because of any unforecasted weather; ATC delays; etc) we would stop and refuel. I made the decision to continue since our fuel level indicated that we have enough to get to [destination] and for an extra 1 hour of flight time. Two days after the flight; while the airplane was being refueled; it came to my attention that the airplane was refueled with 75 gallons of fuel. The total usable fuel for 76.4; which means that we landed with only 1.4 gallons although the fuel indication showed us that we had almost 3 gallons in each tank.
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.