Cessna 177A N30559

Summary

On 19 August 2010 at about 01:00 local time, a Cessna 177A registered N30559, operated by Skylarks Flying Club, was involved in an accident near Manson, Washington, United States. 4 people were on board and 2 had minor injuries. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

19 August 2010 at 01:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Manson, Washington, United States

Coordinates

47.8844, -120.1350

Aircraft

Cessna 177A

Registration

N30559

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Skylarks Flying Club

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Cle Elum → Chelan

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR10LA412

2 people had minor injuries.

A loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, and the pilot’s failure to ensure that a sufficient quantity of fuel was on board to complete the flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot was making a round-robin cross-country flight, and his preflight fuel planning indicated that he would need 15.8 gallons of fuel to complete the flight and have the required reserve for visual flight rules. He visually checked the fuel level in the tanks prior to departure on the first leg and estimated that he had over 30 gallons on board. This approximated what he observed on the fuel gauges at the start of the flight; he did not have a calibrated measuring device for his airplane. The pilot completed the outbound leg successfully. Preflight for the return leg consisted of a walk-around visual inspection of the airplane but did not include a visual examination of the fuel levels in the fuel tanks. Approaching the destination on the return leg, the engine began to run rough, lost all power, restarted briefly, and then lost all power again. The pilot made an off-airport forced landing in rough terrain. Postaccident examination found that the fuel tanks were empty. The pilot surmised that a fuel leak developed for undetermined reasons; however, there was no evidence found to indicate that a fuel leak had occurred.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.