Fuel Follies

Youre alone in your Lancair Evolution single-engine turboprop. You have just refueled at Chicagos Midway Airport and are headed to Denver, which your computer says is 788 nm away. The weather is good. The flight planning youve accomplished says it will take 3+15 and 121 gallons of the 170 available with the tanks filled. On startup, you reset your fuel totalizer to 170 gallons.

Thursday, July 20, 2017 at 12:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

A pilot experienced an unexpected critically low fuel situation due to discrepancies between instrument readings and actual fuel availability, despite prior flight planning.
Key contributing factors included tanks not being fully topped off (due to aircraft attitude or refueling practices) and an incorrectly calibrated fuel totalizer (K-Factor) leading to inaccurate fuel burn calculations.
The article advises pilots to ensure accurate initial fuel quantity, verify fuel burn instrument calibration, and always trust the most pessimistic fuel indication when multiple systems are present to prevent in-flight fuel emergencies.

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You’re alone in your Lancair Evolution single-engine turboprop. You have just refueled at Chicago’s Midway Airport and are headed to Denver, which your computer says is 788 nm away. The weather is good. The flight planning you’ve accomplished says it will take 3+15 and 121 gallons of the 170 available with the tanks filled. On startup, you reset your fuel totalizer to 170 gallons.

While ATC keeps you down low longer that you would have wanted, you’re soon at cruising altitude and your instrumentation predicts you’ll have 35-36 gallons over the destination airport. So far, so good.