Cessna 180 N7945V

Summary

On 12 April 2017 at about 17:51 local time, a Cessna 180 registered N7945V was involved in an accident near Manchester, California, United States. One person was 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

12 April 2017 at 17:51

Classification

Accident

Location

Manchester, California, United States

Coordinates

38.9736, -123.7089

Aircraft

Cessna 180

Registration

N7945V

Category

Airplane

Year built

1967

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Eureka → Petaluma

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

GAA17CA230

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s improper preflight fuel planning, which resulted in fuel exhaustion and the total loss of engine power.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The pilot reported that, during cruise flight, the engine "quit" while at 1,500 ft above ground level. He added that he landed the airplane in a large, flat pasture, but during the landing, the airplane nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the tail and wings. In a telephone conversation with the recovery specialist, the pilot reported that the fuel tanks had not been breached during the landing, and he recovered 1.5 gallons of fuel from the right fuel tank and 2.5 gallons of fuel from the left fuel tank. The airplane was equipped with an engine monitoring unit. About 1 hour 13 minutes of data were recorded during the accident flight. The data showed a sudden decrease in exhaust gas temperatures and cylinder head temperatures for all cylinders about the same time. For further information, see the JPI Engine Monitoring Unit data plot in the public docket for this accident. The 1967 Cessna 180 Owner's Manual states, in part: "2.5 gallons [in] each tank [is] unusable in normal flight maneuvers."

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.