Piper PA-25-235 N8808L

Summary

On 28 May 2014 at about 21:00 local time, a Piper PA-25-235 registered N8808L, operated by Soaring Society of Boulder Inc., was involved in an accident near Boulder, Colorado, United States. One person was on board and one 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

28 May 2014 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Boulder, Colorado, United States

Nearest airport

Boulder Municipal Airport (BDU)

Coordinates

40.0403, -105.2483

Aircraft

Piper PA-25-235

Registration

N8808L

Category

Airplane

Year built

1971

Engines

1

Operator

Soaring Society of Boulder Inc.

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Glider Tow

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Boulder → Boulder

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

CEN14LA261

1 person had minor injuries.

The pilot's failure to adequately monitor the airplane's actual fuel consumption rate, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that the accident occurred during his fifth glider aero-tow flight since the airplane had last been refueled. He stated that the aero-tow and glider release were uneventful. However, as he was returning to the departure airport, the engine began to run intermittently before it eventually experienced a total loss of engine power. During the subsequent forced landing, the airplane became entangled with a chain-link fence and impacted a road before it slid into a drainage ditch. A postaccident examination of the airplane's single fuel tank established that it was undamaged and void of any usable fuel. Before the first flight of the day, the airplane was refueled, and the total usable fuel was about 32.5 gallons. The airplane recording tachometer indicated that 2.2 tachometer hours had been accumulated since that time. Although the airplane operator reported that, according to historical fueling and flight data, the airplane's average fuel consumption rate was about 10.2 gallons per tachometer hour, the calculated average fuel consumption rate was 14.8 gallons per tachometer hour since the last refueling. Although the total loss of engine power was caused by fuel exhaustion, the investigation could not determine the reason for the above-normal fuel consumption rate. However, if the pilot had determined the actual fuel consumption rate between flights, he should have identified that insufficient fuel was available to complete the accident flight.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.