Ron Wanttaja writes:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 20:09:35 GMT, Kyler Laird
wrote:

Ron Wanttaja writes:

Well... as far as homebuilts are concerned, fuel exhaustion (defined as the
pilot running the airplane out of fuel) plays only a minor role in the
overall accident rate. During 1998-2000, only 4.5% of all homebuilt
accidents involved fuel exhaustion (including some accidents that occurred
during precautionary landings due to a low fuel state).

How many of "all homebuilt accidents" involved an "emergency landing"?
(I don't think we mean "landing" to include "falling to earth in pieces".)

About 20% of the homebuilt accidents in that period involved a loss of
power due to mechanical failure of the engine or fuel system (vs. pilot
mismanagement of fuel or power system). About 15% engine related, about 5%
fuel-system related.

So are you saying that there's a 1:1 relationship between losing power and
making an emergency landing? No one loses power and performs a stall/spin
return to the ground?

I'm just trying to get back to the point about fuel probably being already
exhausted when an emergency landing is executed. Are you saying that three
of every four emergency landings are made with significant quantities of
fuel on board? (Another complication is that it's fairly common to still
have gobs of fuel on board even when fuel starvation is the cause of the
accident.)

--kyler