Tree-Top Flyer

I was flying my Cessna T210 Turbo Centurion from White Plains, N.Y. (KHPN), to Atlantas Dekalb-Peachtree Airport (KPDK). Thanks to a supplementary tank, I had enough fuel to make the flight with an hour's reserve. Before takeoff, I had watched the line crew fill the fuel tanks to overflowing.

Key Takeaways:

• A pilot experienced a complete engine failure due to fuel exhaustion, despite having filled tanks and a fuel totalizer indicating remaining fuel, leading to a forced landing in trees.
• The incident was caused by a combination of a known, uncorrected faulty fuel gauge and a hidden fuel tank breather defect common in 210s that trapped 20 gallons of unusable fuel.
• Key lessons highlight the dangers of delaying known repairs, cancelling IFR at night, and extending flight time with fuel concerns, though the pilot successfully executed a controlled stall into trees, resulting in no serious injury.

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