video - pilot runs out of fuel, pops parachute

On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:41:23 GMT, Skywise wrote:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/01...ape.u-s-coast-
guard

"The pilot of a single engine aircraft that ran out of fuel is safe after
ditching his aircraft more than 200 miles northeast of Maui, Hawaii."


http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/new...-cirrus-plane-
deploys-parachute-after-running-out-fuel-near-hawaii

"The pilot, en route from Tracy, Calif., to Kahului...."


http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7YT


This incident sort of reminds me of Steve Rhine's ferry flight across the
Atlantic:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061030133403/http://www.alexisparkinn.com/nwpilot's_tranatlantic_flight.htm.

----------------------- Excerpt ----------------------------
Day 2: Goose Bay, Canada to Narsarsuaq, Greenland. This Is where the fun
begins! The plan was to go from Goose Bay to Keflavik, Iceland -- but I had
fuel system troubles between Greenland and Iceland. Not Fun! Here's what
happened:

After switching to the aircraft fuel (from the ferry tank) strange things
started happening. The 100-gallon ferry tank went dry after only 7 hours,
burning 8 to 9 gallons per hour! Something just did not add up...

Then, the G1000 started to go nuts, with the fuel indicators displaying red
X's. Next, I received a CO2 detector failure, then GPS-1 failure! At this
point I was thinking "What next!?"

Well, I didn't have to wait long: The G1000 display suddenly went black,
with white text in the left hand corner saying "initializing system"!

(Note: All this was happening at night, locked in the soup, at FL070 and
200+ miles from the nearest land -- with almost no communication with a
ground-based person!)

When the G1000 got done rebooting, I found myself missing my airspeed
indicator and fuel gauges -- and it was now displaying a bunch of other errors.
Assessing my situation, I figured that I had no fuel gauges, the G1000 is
continually rebooting, possible CO2 in the cabin, AND an apparent fuel leak!

At this point I am thinking to myself that if I do still have full fuel in
the aircraft tanks I could make it the 490 miles to Keflavik -- but I would be
cutting it really close. With no indicators showing quantity, and the missing
fuel from the ferry tank indicating a possible leak, I figured it would be best
if I got on the HF radio, declared an emergency, and turned back to Greenland!

So I declared an emergency and went in to a 100FPM climbing turning back
toward Greenland. I received a response from a DHL & Air France airliner, who
both relayed the emergency call. They responded that they would open the
Narsarsuaq airport for me.

"Thank You, Portable GPS Units!!" At this point, my handheld was my only
reliable navigational aid.

Upon reaching FL095 I was on top and looked to my left -- and really got
scared!!! The aircraft vent was venting a large amount of fuel out into space!
Thank you, Cessna for the under-wing courtesy lights!

So I kept the 100 fpm climb going up to 13,000 feet (for crossing the
icecap), and finally established radio communication with some one on the HF. I
informed them of the fuel venting problem, and the constantly rebooting G1000
PFD.

They assure me that they have rescue team waiting and ready, in case I have
to ditch!

As I grind closer and closer to Narsarsuaq, at about 60 miles out they send
up a rescue chopper, locate me, and guide me in, since I am unable to make the
NDB approach with the G1000 rebooting itself. (The ADF display is tied to the
G1000's HSI.)

I spot the airport in the middle of all the black, and ATC has me do a
steep spiraling decent all the way down to 3,000'. At that point I must
follow the chopper, who will keep me away from the mountains... Who would have
ever thought that knowing THAT maneuver would pay off?

Everything worked as planned. On downwind I noticed that the fuel gauges
were not red X's anymore, and were now reading full. Then, as I turned to
final, they go to red X's again, and as I landed the G1000 once again rebooted
as I rolled out.

Now it's showing 1/2 fuel in 1 tank, and 3/4 in the other ????

I taxied in and parked this bird for the night, still a bit shook up from
the events of the past few hours. I find a bed and lay there for a few hours,
thinking about the days events

Photos from Day 2:





Steven in "The Suit"




The Skyhawk parked at Goose Bay




Half-way from Goose Bay

On 30/01/2015 12:28 p.m., Larry Dighera wrote:
On Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:41:23 GMT, Skywise wrote:

http://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2015/01...ape.u-s-coast-
guard

"The pilot of a single engine aircraft that ran out of fuel is safe after
ditching his aircraft more than 200 miles northeast of Maui, Hawaii."


http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/new...-cirrus-plane-
deploys-parachute-after-running-out-fuel-near-hawaii

"The pilot, en route from Tracy, Calif., to Kahului...."


http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N7YT


This incident sort of reminds me of Steve Rhine's ferry flight across the
Atlantic:
https://web.archive.org/web/20061030133403/http://www.alexisparkinn.com/nwpilot's_tranatlantic_flight.htm.

----------------------- Excerpt ----------------------------
Day 2: Goose Bay, Canada to Narsarsuaq, Greenland. This Is where the fun
begins! The plan was to go from Goose Bay to Keflavik, Iceland -- but I had
fuel system troubles between Greenland and Iceland. Not Fun! Here's what
happened:

After switching to the aircraft fuel (from the ferry tank) strange things
started happening. The 100-gallon ferry tank went dry after only 7 hours,
burning 8 to 9 gallons per hour! Something just did not add up...

Then, the G1000 started to go nuts, with the fuel indicators displaying red
X's. Next, I received a CO2 detector failure, then GPS-1 failure! At this
point I was thinking "What next!?"

Well, I didn't have to wait long: The G1000 display suddenly went black,
with white text in the left hand corner saying "initializing system"!

(Note: All this was happening at night, locked in the soup, at FL070 and
200+ miles from the nearest land -- with almost no communication with a
ground-based person!)

When the G1000 got done rebooting, I found myself missing my airspeed
indicator and fuel gauges -- and it was now displaying a bunch of other errors.
Assessing my situation, I figured that I had no fuel gauges, the G1000 is
continually rebooting, possible CO2 in the cabin, AND an apparent fuel leak!

At this point I am thinking to myself that if I do still have full fuel in
the aircraft tanks I could make it the 490 miles to Keflavik -- but I would be
cutting it really close. With no indicators showing quantity, and the missing
fuel from the ferry tank indicating a possible leak, I figured it would be best
if I got on the HF radio, declared an emergency, and turned back to Greenland!

So I declared an emergency and went in to a 100FPM climbing turning back
toward Greenland. I received a response from a DHL & Air France airliner, who
both relayed the emergency call. They responded that they would open the
Narsarsuaq airport for me.

"Thank You, Portable GPS Units!!" At this point, my handheld was my only
reliable navigational aid.

Upon reaching FL095 I was on top and looked to my left -- and really got
scared!!! The aircraft vent was venting a large amount of fuel out into space!
Thank you, Cessna for the under-wing courtesy lights!

So I kept the 100 fpm climb going up to 13,000 feet (for crossing the
icecap), and finally established radio communication with some one on the HF. I
informed them of the fuel venting problem, and the constantly rebooting G1000
PFD.

They assure me that they have rescue team waiting and ready, in case I have
to ditch!

As I grind closer and closer to Narsarsuaq, at about 60 miles out they send
up a rescue chopper, locate me, and guide me in, since I am unable to make the
NDB approach with the G1000 rebooting itself. (The ADF display is tied to the
G1000's HSI.)

I spot the airport in the middle of all the black, and ATC has me do a
steep spiraling decent all the way down to 3,000'. At that point I must
follow the chopper, who will keep me away from the mountains... Who would have
ever thought that knowing THAT maneuver would pay off?

Everything worked as planned. On downwind I noticed that the fuel gauges
were not red X's anymore, and were now reading full. Then, as I turned to
final, they go to red X's again, and as I landed the G1000 once again rebooted
as I rolled out.

Now it's showing 1/2 fuel in 1 tank, and 3/4 in the other ????

I taxied in and parked this bird for the night, still a bit shook up from
the events of the past few hours. I find a bed and lay there for a few hours,
thinking about the days events

Photos from Day 2:





Steven in "The Suit"




The Skyhawk parked at Goose Bay




Half-way from Goose Bay






Bloody hell.

george152 wrote in
news
Bloody hell.

You can say that again. Yeah... got a redundancy theme going
on here.

I followed the link to the archived page and read the rest.
The story indicated that the G1000 was freaking out due to the
fuel level going too high?!?! That's a SERIOUS programming
error. Geez. How'd it ever get flight certified?

I'm only a hobbyist self taught programmer (since 1983), and I
like reading about how the most innocuous programming mistakes
can lead to utter catastrophe. I learn from it, and it reminds
me to be very very thorough when I write my software.

Anyway, I hope Garmin fixed that one.

Brian
--
http://www.earthwaves.org/forum/index.php - Earth Sciences discussion
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 06:03:03 GMT, Skywise wrote:

george152 wrote in
news
Bloody hell.

You can say that again. Yeah... got a redundancy theme going
on here.

I followed the link to the archived page and read the rest.
The story indicated that the G1000 was freaking out due to the
fuel level going too high?!?! That's a SERIOUS programming
error. Geez. How'd it ever get flight certified?

I'm only a hobbyist self taught programmer (since 1983), and I
like reading about how the most innocuous programming mistakes
can lead to utter catastrophe. I learn from it, and it reminds
me to be very very thorough when I write my software.

Anyway, I hope Garmin fixed that one.

Brian


If you're a programmer, you know that nearly 50% of the code in any project is
related to error handling routines.

I'm always uncomfortable with an all glass cockpit. They are terrific when
there is power for them, but the prospect of marginal instrumentation in the
event of a power outage haunts...

Steve Rhine's, the ferry pilot in the archived story, inaugural post to this
newsgroup related a story about him and his flight instructor rolling a
non-aerobatic C-150. I had reservations about his changing carriers from
programmer to ferry pilot, but apparently he has been very successful. He now
heads his own firm International Ferry Flights:
http://www.internationalferryflights.com/. I'll bet he has a few more good
stories to tell about overseas ferrying...

On 30/01/2015 10:44 p.m., Larry Dighera wrote:
On Fri, 30 Jan 2015 06:03:03 GMT, Skywise wrote:

george152 wrote in
news
Bloody hell.

You can say that again. Yeah... got a redundancy theme going
on here.

I followed the link to the archived page and read the rest.
The story indicated that the G1000 was freaking out due to the
fuel level going too high?!?! That's a SERIOUS programming
error. Geez. How'd it ever get flight certified?

I'm only a hobbyist self taught programmer (since 1983), and I
like reading about how the most innocuous programming mistakes
can lead to utter catastrophe. I learn from it, and it reminds
me to be very very thorough when I write my software.

Anyway, I hope Garmin fixed that one.

Brian


If you're a programmer, you know that nearly 50% of the code in any project is
related to error handling routines.

I'm always uncomfortable with an all glass cockpit. They are terrific when
there is power for them, but the prospect of marginal instrumentation in the
event of a power outage haunts...

Steve Rhine's, the ferry pilot in the archived story, inaugural post to this
newsgroup related a story about him and his flight instructor rolling a
non-aerobatic C-150. I had reservations about his changing carriers from
programmer to ferry pilot, but apparently he has been very successful. He now
heads his own firm International Ferry Flights:
http://www.internationalferryflights.com/. I'll bet he has a few more good
stories to tell about overseas ferrying...


Rolling a non aerobatic C150 is no biggie but it could point to the old
pilot and the bold pilot.
And I never flew an aircraft with a 'glass' cockpit, saw some, made
enthusiastic noises and that was about it

On Sat, 31 Jan 2015 08:34:49 +1300, george152 wrote:


Rolling a non aerobatic C150 is no biggie but it could point to the old
pilot and the bold pilot.

Decades ago, when I was training, my flight instructor attempted a loop in a
C-150; we fell out of the top, and dirt rained down on us. At the time, I
didn't know better.

And I never flew an aircraft with a 'glass' cockpit, saw some, made
enthusiastic noises and that was about it

It sure makes life a lot easier. It'll even fly the approach for you.
Technology marches on...

Larry Dighera wrote in
:

It sure makes life a lot easier. It'll even fly the approach for you.
Technology marches on...

But NEVER become reliant on it. If you can't fly on steam, take
a refresher, or stay on the ground.

It's disturbing to think that airline pilots, the ones with
thousands of hours, suddenly forget the basics you learn in the
first week of training when something goes wrong.

Brian
--
http://www.earthwaves.org/forum/index.php - Earth Sciences discussion
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

On 31/01/2015 12:17 p.m., Larry Dighera wrote:
On Sat, 31 Jan 2015 08:34:49 +1300, george152 wrote:


Rolling a non aerobatic C150 is no biggie but it could point to the old
pilot and the bold pilot.

Decades ago, when I was training, my flight instructor attempted a loop in a
C-150; we fell out of the top, and dirt rained down on us. At the time, I
didn't know better.
There's a lot of people out here who don't know about that
Mine was a demonstrated stall with a pax and I didn't secure the covers
on the ashtrays

And I never flew an aircraft with a 'glass' cockpit, saw some, made
enthusiastic noises and that was about it

It sure makes life a lot easier. It'll even fly the approach for you.
Technology marches on...
I started when the airfield was non audio. The only Approach aid was the
light gun and the Controller in the tower

Larry Dighera wrote in
:

If you're a programmer, you know that nearly 50% of the code in any
project is related to error handling routines.

Or more.

Most of my code is for myself. Programming is a tool for me to be
able to accomplish something else. So for the most part I dispense
with all the extra stuff because I know what to NOT do. Although I
still have to deal with input, because a lot of my programs are
reading someone elses database and crunching the data. There's
always errors in the input that I have to look out for.

Now, for the very few programs I've intended for public consumption,
80% of the code is for the user interface and error handling.
Perhaps more. Modern GUI's are very code intensive.

Brian
--
http://www.earthwaves.org/forum/index.php - Earth Sciences discussion
http://www.skywise711.com - Lasers, Seismology, Astronomy, Skepticism
Sed quis custodiet ipsos Custodes?

Skywise writes:

it reminds
me to be very very thorough when I write my software.

Being thorough doesn't prevent errors in any activity...it might only
reduce the frequency of errors.
--
Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality, for one
very rich man; there must be at least five hundred poor.
~ Adam Smith