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"I had my
eyes glued on the fuel pressure gage and my hand on the fuel selector. I
thought the fuel pressure would fluctuate in advance of the tank running dry,
but the (metered) pressure went from 11 psi to about 5 psi in the blink of
an eye."
I've only run a tank dry one time, and it was
intentional. This was a long time ago in a Grumman Traveler running a
Lycoming O-320 at cruise settings. After the fuel gauge hit empty I
listened intently for any sound that might indicate I was about to run out of
fuel. I was expecting a sputter, miss, surge, something. (Guess I've
watched too many airplane movies.) Instead the engine sound quit like
somebody flipped a switch. Even though I was expecting something to happen
the sharp sudden cutoff caught me by surprise. After a second or
so of PIT (Pilot Induced Turbulence) caused by the pilot being rather
startled I switched tanks, the engine sound immediately returned to normal, and
I landed at a nearby airport that I already had in sight. One other
thing. When I sumped the tanks after refueling the first sample from
the tank I had run dry had quite a number of small particles in it.
This was a rental that I flew fairly often and I never saw that kind of debris
in the fuel sample before or after.
Tom Gourley
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