Running dry?

Greg Copeland wrote:
(http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/182044-1.html), he not only recommends
running tanks dry but puts forth a powerful argument that it's a
responsible fuel management strategy. Furthermore, Deakin also offers
that he has never found an NTSB accident report related to a failed engine
start when running a tank dry and switching to the next.


WE had one of our Lances crash at RDU one foggy morning that I believe was due
to the pilot running one tank dry while on the ILS inbound from the outer
marker. He hit the tops of the trees, spun around and down one and landed flat
in a densely wooded area to the north of the field. The resulting fire
destroyed the aircraft pretty completely. Fortunately, the pilot walked away
from it with just a superficial cut on his forehead.

He may have tried to restart but just didn't have enough time before he sank
into the trees. Clean, a Lance will come down at 1100 FPM; it's gonna be
considerably faster with the gear hanging out like it would after intercepting
the glideslope.

http://www8.landings.com/cgi-bin/nph...at&pos =71003

I've got some pictures of this wreck; you wouldn't believe it was possible for
anyone to survive. Here's one of them:

http://home.carolina.rr.com/jayhanig/crash4.jpg

Now, to get back to the first question: how often does one run a tank dry
intentionally? If I was in a Cherokee Six with four tanks and had passengers,
hopefully never. The downside of this is that if you left just a couple of
estimated gallons in each tank, you have lost a significant amount of useful
fuel.

If I were trying to stretch a flight and even then only if I were alone, I might
consider running one dry. But I have to tell you: running a tank dry in a
Cherokee results in te longest 30 seconds of your life. I ran a C-210 tank dry
once and almost the second I hit the boost after switching the fuel selector I
got a restart. Not so in the Cherokee... it takes a while. A loooong while.
Kind of scarey.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE