Narrative:

On a flight from ZZZ1 to ZZZ; my engine stopped inflight. I believe the cause was that I forgot to switch the fuel tank selector at the appropriate time and the right tank ran dry; starving the engine of fuel. During the incident; I glided below my assigned altitude and had to leave my assigned heading to look for a suitable place to land if necessary. I also made a 'mayday' call to den approach and informed them the engine had failed. I started the flight with the right tank selected. I switched to the (full) left tank and was able to restart the engine and continue to the destination. I intended to switch tanks approximately 1/2 way to the destination. Apparently; I forgot to switch tanks; because the selector was still on the right tank when the engine stopped. A contributing factor was that almost all of my flying experience has been in aircraft having a 'both' setting on the fuel selector; so I didn't have to switch tanks inflight. The 2 airplanes I have flown that lacked a 'both' setting each had a GPS that provided periodic reminders to switch tanks. However; the GPS in the incident aircraft had recently been upgraded with waas capability and all its settings had been returned to the factory defaults; which did not include the periodic reminders to switch tanks. My plan to switch tanks at the 1/2 way point was a poor plan. The logic was that if I could make it 1/2 way on 1 tank; I should have enough fuel in the other tank to complete the flight. The problem was it left the plane imbalanced with hundreds more pounds of fuel in one wing than the other. In the future; I will switch tanks every 30 minutes. I missed clues that might have alerted me to the problem. First; the autopilot failed to hold a heading; and the plane began an uncommanded turn to the left. I turned off the autopilot and noted a left-rolling tendency. At first I thought a passenger's bag was putting pressure on the copilot's yoke; but moving the bag did not help. I looked around to see if something had happened to the airframe but saw nothing unusual. I assumed that the autopilot had stuck with a bungee pulling to the left. Only after I landed did I realize that the left-rolling tendency was caused by the imbalance of fuel. When the engine stopped; I acted in accordance with my emergency training. I established best glide speed; selected a possible landing site; switched tanks; and restarted the engine.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna Turbo 210 pilot fails to switch tanks in a timely fashion and suffers temporary engine failure and altitude/track deviations while recovering.

Narrative: On a flight from ZZZ1 to ZZZ; my engine stopped inflight. I believe the cause was that I forgot to switch the fuel tank selector at the appropriate time and the right tank ran dry; starving the engine of fuel. During the incident; I glided below my assigned altitude and had to leave my assigned heading to look for a suitable place to land if necessary. I also made a 'Mayday' call to DEN Approach and informed them the engine had failed. I started the flight with the right tank selected. I switched to the (full) left tank and was able to restart the engine and continue to the destination. I intended to switch tanks approximately 1/2 way to the destination. Apparently; I forgot to switch tanks; because the selector was still on the right tank when the engine stopped. A contributing factor was that almost all of my flying experience has been in aircraft having a 'both' setting on the fuel selector; so I didn't have to switch tanks inflight. The 2 airplanes I have flown that lacked a 'both' setting each had a GPS that provided periodic reminders to switch tanks. However; the GPS in the incident aircraft had recently been upgraded with WAAS capability and all its settings had been returned to the factory defaults; which did not include the periodic reminders to switch tanks. My plan to switch tanks at the 1/2 way point was a poor plan. The logic was that if I could make it 1/2 way on 1 tank; I should have enough fuel in the other tank to complete the flight. The problem was it left the plane imbalanced with hundreds more pounds of fuel in one wing than the other. In the future; I will switch tanks every 30 minutes. I missed clues that might have alerted me to the problem. First; the autopilot failed to hold a heading; and the plane began an uncommanded turn to the left. I turned off the autopilot and noted a left-rolling tendency. At first I thought a passenger's bag was putting pressure on the Copilot's yoke; but moving the bag did not help. I looked around to see if something had happened to the airframe but saw nothing unusual. I assumed that the autopilot had stuck with a bungee pulling to the left. Only after I landed did I realize that the left-rolling tendency was caused by the imbalance of fuel. When the engine stopped; I acted in accordance with my emergency training. I established best glide speed; selected a possible landing site; switched tanks; and restarted the engine.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.