Dead stick landings - follow up question

[John]

I have a question for those of you that have experience with a dead
stick landing caused by fuel exhaustion (either personally or through
second hand knowledge) - was it possible to add fuel and simply fly
the aircraft away or did you have to have the aircraft towed and/or
disassembled? (I am of course referring to situations where there was
minimal or no damage to the aircraft after the landing)

What were the circumstances of your take-off from a non-airport
surface (if one was involved)?

Just curious. I am sure some of you have some good stories to tell.

John Glass

[john]

On 30 Jul 2003 05:28:06 -0700, (John) wrote:

<snip>
was it possible to add fuel and simply fly
>the aircraft away or did you have to have the aircraft towed and/or
>disassembled? (I am of course referring to situations where there was
>minimal or no damage to the aircraft after the landing)
<snip>

to some extent this is determined by state/local law. I have seen
planes land on GA 400 (north of ATL) due to fuel exhaustion & later
take off while hwy patrol stopped traffic for the t/o. I have read
more than once where out west an aircraft landed, got refueled &
refreshed & took off.
other states forbid the taking off from public hwy. IOW you call an
aircraft recovery service. YMMV
john

[Gene Seibel]

Added fuel, flew away. It was a little used gravel road. I saw no one
from law enforcement, but several years later a police dispatcher told
me she had dispatched an officer to the location to check it out. I
was apparently sitting in a nearby farmhouse waiting for my wife to
call back at the time. They saw no one and no damage and left. This
was Missouri.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.


"John" > wrote in message
om...
> I have a question for those of you that have experience with a dead
> stick landing caused by fuel exhaustion (either personally or
through
> second hand knowledge) - was it possible to add fuel and simply fly
> the aircraft away or did you have to have the aircraft towed and/or
> disassembled? (I am of course referring to situations where there
was
> minimal or no damage to the aircraft after the landing)
>
> What were the circumstances of your take-off from a non-airport
> surface (if one was involved)?
>
> Just curious. I am sure some of you have some good stories to tell.
>
> John Glass
>

[Patric Barry]

Obviously, whether you are allowed to refuel and depart depends on whether
any authorities are notified or even discover you have made an off field
landing.

In California there are occasional instances where pilots have landed on
freeways in the urban area, and after resolving the problem (if the plane is
not damaged and the NTSB has stated the aircraft is capable of flight) the
police close the freeway and the plane takes off to an airport.

30 years ago a friend was flying a C170 in central California and he hadn't
done a visual check of the fuel, assuming that the fbo had loaded the fuel
he had ordered the night before - he relied on the fuel gauge which, in a
tail dragger, showed more fuel than he had when the plane was on the
ground - and flying down the valley he ran out of fuel and headed for a
freeway, where he landed without incident. As luck had it, he rolled up to a
gas station and filled the plane with auto fuel and started the engine right
up and took off on the freeway - true story, verified by the passenger. He
did not notify anyone and heard nothing about the incident.

So, in answer to your question, if the plane is airworthy, then it is a
matter of whether suitable fuel can be located and whether or not the
authorities have been notified, and if they haven't heard about the plane
coming down then it is up to the pilot to decide. In California the
authorities will apparently allow a plane to depart from the roadway or
freeway.