Cessna 150H N684RA

Summary

On 26 October 2013 at about 18:45 local time, a Cessna 150H registered N684RA, operated by Charles E. Puckett, was involved in an accident near Livingston, Alabama, United States. 2 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

26 October 2013 at 18:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Livingston, Alabama, United States

Coordinates

32.5889, -88.1744

Aircraft

Cessna 150H

Registration

N684RA

Category

Airplane

Year built

1968

Engines

1

Operator

Charles E. Puckett

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Cullman → Gonzales

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA14LA094

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate soft-field technique during the precautionary landing, which resulted in a nose-over. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection, which resulted in departure with an open fuel port and the subsequent in-flight, overboard venting of the fuel supply.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

After purchasing the airplane, the pilot serviced it with fuel at the self-service pump and then departed on the cross-country flight to his home airport. About 1.4 hours into the flight, he noticed the fuel quantity displayed on the fuel gauges rapidly decreasing and the electrical system "discharging." (Although the pilot reported he had been flying for 45 minutes, based on the takeoff and landing location, the airplane traveled 140 miles; the airplane's cruise speed is 100 mph; therefore, he had been flying about 1.4 hours.) The pilot chose to conduct a precautionary landing to a field. Upon landing, the nose gear dug into the soft soil, and the airplane then nosed over and came to rest inverted, which resulted in substantial damage to the engine firewall. According to the pilot, the engine was running "fine" throughout the flight, and it never stopped producing power. The pilot recovered and disassembled the airplane before reporting the accident. During recovery, he noted that one of the two 13-gallon fuel tanks was empty and that the other tank contained about 1/4 tank of fuel (about 3 to 4 gallons), which confirmed that his fuel gauges were reading accurately. After the accident, only one fuel cap was recovered from the airplane, and a similar fuel cap was recovered at the self-service pump at the departure airport. Interpolation of performance data revealed that, at a 6 gallon-per-hour fuel consumption rate, the airplane would have consumed about 8 gallons of fuel. With one fuel tank venting overboard and the engine consuming 8 gallons of fuel from the other tank, the airplane would have contained about 4 gallons of fuel at landing.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.