Narrative:

I was flying a cross country flight today. I started the first leg of the trip with 2.7 hours of fuel remaining in the apache. The trip was a 1.2 hour flight. At the first stop I bought 14 gallons of fuel and filled 7 gallons a side on the apache. The apache now had 2.3 hours of fuel on board. I took off on the second leg and the total en route time was 1.4 hours. That said I had a 54 min fuel reserve. The airplane burns 18.5 gallons per hour. I was about 15 miles out of destination at 10;000 MSL. My left engine started quitting on me. I took immediate action. I identified and verified the dead engine (left engine). I pulled the left throttle to idle. The engine was still running a little bit. I turned on the boost pumps and looked at my fuel gauges and it had fuel pressure. About 10 miles out I slowly pushed the throttle forward and the engine was running fine again. About 8 miles out the engine completely quit. At that point I brought the left throttle all the way to idle and feathered the prop. I shut of the mixture and magnetos off on the left engine. During this whole process I contact ATC and told them I had problems with one of my engines. I told ATC I had plenty of altitude to make a save landing. ATC then told me I was cleared to land for runway 27 and they will have personnel ready in case of an emergency. I landed the aircraft safely and taxied to an FBO. There were no injuries; damage or delays. At the ramp the owner and I took the fuel truck and fueled the left engine. It was completely empty. The right engine had 8 or 9 gallons remaining. My experience today was I did do proper fuel planning. The last 3 to 4 days prior to this incident. I did several cross country trips. I didn't have any problems. There must be something mechanical wrong.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A PA23 on a cross-country flight shutdown the left engine after the left wing tank fuel was exhausted even though both tanks were filled equally and the right tank had at least eight gallons remaining.

Narrative: I was flying a cross country flight today. I started the first leg of the trip with 2.7 hours of fuel remaining in the Apache. The trip was a 1.2 hour flight. At the first stop I bought 14 gallons of fuel and filled 7 gallons a side on the Apache. The Apache now had 2.3 hours of fuel on board. I took off on the second leg and the total en route time was 1.4 hours. That said I had a 54 min fuel reserve. The airplane burns 18.5 Gallons per hour. I was about 15 miles out of destination at 10;000 MSL. My Left Engine started quitting on me. I took immediate action. I identified and verified the dead engine (LEFT ENGINE). I pulled the left throttle to idle. The engine was still running a little bit. I turned on the boost pumps and looked at my fuel gauges and it had fuel pressure. About 10 miles out I slowly pushed the throttle forward and the engine was running fine again. About 8 miles out the engine completely quit. At that point I brought the left throttle all the way to idle and feathered the prop. I shut of the mixture and magnetos off on the left engine. During this whole process I contact ATC and told them I had problems with one of my engines. I told ATC I had plenty of altitude to make a save landing. ATC then told me I was cleared to land for Runway 27 and they will have personnel ready in case of an emergency. I landed the aircraft safely and taxied to an FBO. There were no injuries; damage or delays. At the ramp the Owner and I took the fuel truck and fueled the left engine. It was completely empty. The right engine had 8 or 9 gallons remaining. My experience today was I did do proper fuel planning. The last 3 to 4 days prior to this incident. I did several cross country trips. I didn't have any problems. There must be something mechanical wrong.

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.