The 500-hour pilot held a private license for aircraft single-engine land. He did not have an instrument rating, but had been receiving instruction toward one. The airplane was a J35 Bonanza, manufactured in 1958 and equipped with tip tanks that increased its fuel capacity to 100 gallons.
The pilot was solo when he left New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on a dark February evening for New Orleans, about 480 nm distant. This was a flight that he had practiced on his personal computer, according to his flight instructor, using Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. The instructor also reported a quirk of the airplane: On one flight, when the right tip tank was selected, the engine began to cough and lose power. Returning to the main tank restored smooth running. The instructor said that the pilot had had a mechanic "lubricate the fuel selector valve assembly," after which "the fuel system operated normally." No maintenance log entry was found to document this somewhat peculiar episode, and it is unclear what effect lubricating a selector valve would have on what sounds more like a vent obstruction or a clogged or leaking feed line.
Once airborne, the pilot contacted Daytona Beach TRACON to request an IFR clearance to New Orleans. Having obtained it, he proceeded uneventfully en route at an altitude of 6,000 feet and with a groundspeed of about 150 knots.
At 8:58, when the flight had been airborne for about an hour and 40 minutes, the Center Controller working the Bonanza noticed that the airplane had reversed course and was now eastbound. He inquired whether there was some difficulty, and the pilot replied that he had a fuel problem and was working on it. When the controller told the pilot that if he needed to land the Panama City airport was less than 10 miles away, he replied that he believed he could "make it" to Gulfport-Biloxi, 160 nm to the west and just 60 nm short of New Orleans.
A couple of minutes later, the pilot reported to the controller that he had fixed the problem and wished to continue to New Orleans, his original destination.
At 9:28, after being handed off to Pensacola Tracon, the pilot checked in and added, "Can I amend it to you for fuel?" Upon being asked what he wanted to amend, the pilot stammered, "I wanna ... I would like to amend my flight paa ... my flight plan to come to you for fuel ... you have ah, avgas there?"
"Yes sir, you wanna land at Pensacola Regional Airport, is that correct?"
"I'm, uh, I'm having a fuel situation up here," the pilot said. "I need to get this thing taken care of."
Garbled, hesitant speech and irrational questions (does an airport have avgas?) are pretty clear signs of a pilot who is rattled. The controller did not wait for the pilot to declare an emergency, but gave the Bonanza priority handling for an ILS approach into Pensacola where, unfortunately, there was a 200-foot overcast, a challenging condition only slightly mitigated, given the darkness, by two-mile visibility. The Bonanza, however, was then above the clouds and in visual conditions.
The controller was vectoring the Bonanza to the Runway 17 ILS when he asked the pilot, "Were you just burning more fuel than you'd estimated?"
"I have fuel in a tip tank that I cannot get to," the pilot explained.
The controller cleared the Bonanza to descend to 1,700 feet. When it was about eight miles north of the airport he said, "Assigned altitude is 1,700, you're on a base leg, eight miles north of the airport," to which the pilot responded, "Roger, 89D 1,700, base leg is north." The Bonanza, however, was at 2,700 feet. "I'm showing you at 2,700," the controller said. "You want a vector across the final for descent, or can you get down from there?"
"I'm, uh, still working 'er down," the pilot said. "I think uh ... yes, go ahead and give me a vector for descent." A little later, the pilot asked the controller for the ILS frequency, which he provided.
