Training Tip: What could go wrong?

The maxed-out Cessna 150 took off for a one-hour flight with 12.5 usable gallons of fuel. Assuming a 6-gph burn en route, it would be necessary to refuel before returning to the home airport.

What could go wrong?

Now the choices you face will test your judgment in unexpected ways.

One choice you have is to call for after-hours fueling, and pay a fee.

Another choice is to scoot over to a nearby airport with self-serve fuel. “Nearby” means a 20-minute flight—but remember, fuel is already tight.

Doable?

“We estimated we would have 4 usable gallons remaining. This was legal per actual fuel consumption numbers, but per a conservative burn rate estimate, it would have been below my personal minimums,” the CFI later wrote when sharing details of the night’s flying in a report to the Aviation Safety Reporting System.

Just a short hop. What could go wrong?

Here’s what: You could arrive and find, as this pair did, that the runway lights aren’t working.

Now the choices you face, in a scenario that is starting to unravel, include landing without runway lights at the unfamiliar airport, or returning—into headwinds—to the airport with the closed FBOs.

Oh, and there’s one more option: Making a downwind dash to yet another airport with your four gallons—maybe—of usable fuel remaining.

What’s your call?

Their call was the downwind dash, which was accomplished—and it brings a chuckle when a pilot describes a fortuitous finale to a fear-fraught flight this way—“without incident.”

Safely parked at the pumps, the moment had arrived to learn how much fuel they actually had left.

“We had 2.5 gallons per tank for a total of 5 gallons remaining. 3.5 of those total gallons are unusable, meaning we had 1.5 gallons of usable fuel remaining. This was both illegal and below my personal minimums. I was horrified at what had happened,” the CFI wrote, promising a “big change” to future night-flight instructing.

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