Learning the Basics of Fuel Management

Running out of fuel is most often a result of human error and can result in an unscheduled off-airport landing.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, December 17, 2024 at 10:57 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: tccjeremy

The No. 1 cause of fuel exhaustion, according to the NTSB, is human error. [Credit: iStock]

Key Takeaways:

Fuel exhaustion is a critical and surprisingly common aviation problem, often leading to dangerous off-airport landings, as exemplified by a recent highway crash being investigated for this cause.
The primary cause of fuel exhaustion is human error, stemming from incorrect fuel consumption calculations, unfamiliarity with aircraft systems, neglected pre-flight visual fuel checks, and poor flight management.
Prevention requires meticulous and conservative fuel planning using POH charts and an E6-B, factoring in all flight phases and reserves, and prioritizing opportunistic refueling to avoid running low.

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The only time you have too much fuel is when you are on fire. I tell all my clients this, but especially my student pilots, because running out of fuel is right up there with leaving the baby on the bus. It shouldn’t happen, but it does, and more often than not, it happens when you get behind the airplane.

Running out of fuel can result in an unscheduled off-airport landing. If you are lucky, no one gets hurt, there is very little property damage, and you can use the airplane again. Other times, the results are deadly, or at least more dramatic.