N6753W, a Piper Cherokee 140 (the low end member of the Cherokee family), registered to Lloyd McKinney of Gurley Alabama, landed on I-4 just north of downtown Orlando, right at the exit ramp that I use, Maitland Blvd.

This, at 5:30 pm, right at the height of afternoon commuting traffic congestion. You can guess what a problem this caused in traffic that is stop-and-go in this area on a good day!

The airplane hit a car. No injuries, but body and fender work will be required for both.

Before Rhino chimes in with his usual comment, this time he appears to be correct: fuel mismanagement. The pilot just plain ran out of gas!

FAA requirements for a daytime VFR flight, 30 minutes of fuel reserve when arriving at the destination. This flight's destination was KORL, the Orlando Executive Airport in downtown Orlando, just a few miles north of KMCO, Orlando International.

Per regs, he should have had at least 30 minutes of useable fuel on board, evidently the tank that he was feeding from had none, and he was just minutes from his destination. Our little airport, X04, Orlando-Apopka, with some of the lowest fuel prices in Central Florida, was just minutes (maybe five minutes?) northwest of the landing site.

I have been flying for well over 50 years; I just can not comprehend how somebody can run out of fuel on a flight like this, excellent weather (I was at my hangar at the time, weather was great!), with many airports in the area where he could have stopped for fuel. How does this happen? I'm baffled.

Allstate?

Yeah, you insure my car. I just had a fender bender with a Cherokee. Not not that kind of Cherokee. A plane Cherokee. No, that's not what I meant.

Hello? Hello?

Farmers?

I know you've seen a thing or two, but you're not gonna believe this one...

quote:

Originally posted by Sig2340:
Allstate?

Yeah, you insure my car. I just had a fender bender with a Cherokee. Not not that kind of Cherokee. A plane Cherokee. No, that's not what I meant.

Hello? Hello?

Geico?

What the hell are you talking about? I'm a lizard and have no idea what a Cherokee is.

Wasn't me!

This doesn't only happen with light aircraft...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I have been flying for well over 50 years; I just can not comprehend how somebody can run out of fuel on a flight like this, excellent weather (I was at my hangar at the time, weather was great!), with many airports in the area where he could have stopped for fuel. How does this happen? I'm baffled.

Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

Did the pilot signal when he tried to merge with traffic?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

Did the pilot signal when he tried to merge with traffic?

It’s I-4, no.

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:

Wasn't me!

Aren't you a 180?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

It really isn't.

This guy is in my area but i don't know him that i can recall.

This was on the local news here in north alabama last night.

Glad they walked away but running out of fuel is not a good excuse.

No excuse for this. Glad everyone survived. A fellow pilot I’ve know for years didn’t survive this flight a few days back up at FNL in a Duke.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I have been flying for well over 50 years; I just can not comprehend how somebody can run out of fuel on a flight like this, excellent weather (I was at my hangar at the time, weather was great!), with many airports in the area where he could have stopped for fuel. How does this happen? I'm baffled.

This is really easy to understand. Whatever the pilot was thinking about, fuel management wasn’t part of it. It may be that he is a pilot much less experienced than you and had all of what he could manage without considering fuel (not to mention not having the habit of monitoring fuel status and knowing where the trend was going totally ingrained as you probably do). Or it may be that he is someone who is very experienced and just got complacent. In any case, he clearly blew it bigtime.

It is a mistake, perhaps an unforgivable one, certainly a very embarrassing one, but a mistake none the less. As a species, we humans seem to be pretty good at making those.

Here’s hoping we all avoid that mistake!

quote:

Originally posted by coloradohunter44:
No excuse for this. Glad everyone survived. A fellow pilot I’ve know for years didn’t survive this flight a few days back up at FNL in a Duke.

Any idea what happened? Just from the picture, it looks the the plane is fully involved in a massive fire, perhaps while on an approach through IMC? Horrible position to be in. Condolences on the loss of you friend.

Over 23 years had three small planes, all private acft, run out of fuel and land on I-15. All three zero injuries.

For the one guy it was his 2nd time running out of fuel and landing on a roadway! Things didn't work out very well for him in the long term. The FAA cited him as his license was expires or medic al expired? Plus he had a few warrants for not paying some child support as well as a financial judgements against him.

All three landed with minimal traffic during the day.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:

his 2nd time running out of fuel and landing on a roadway! Things didn't work out very well for him in the long term. The FAA cited him as his license was expires or medical expired?

Pilot certificates do not expire. They are good for life unless revoked or voluntarily surrendered. However, in order to be used, the holder must have had a Flight Review with an Examiner, Inspector, or Flight Instructor, or have been tested for a new certificate or rating, within the preceding 24 calendar months, and also hold a current (unexpired) medical certificate. Those were old rules for the medical, newer rules drop the requirement for a medical certificate under certain circumstances.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:

Two required for the airplane in question.

quote:

How does this happen? I'm baffled.

Either failure to properly execute the preflight checklist (visually checking the fuel) or failure to properly manage fuel inflight.

Both can generally be summarized as stoopidity, especially in this case with the weather being clear and numerous airports around to stop short and get gas.

My pilots do it all the time, stop short to refuel if there is any question. They fly what we call old shit boxes around the country (compared to the advanced .MIL aircraft most of us flew around, they are old shit boxes) and gauges are notoriously unreliable & prone to failure. Plus it's just gauges, not a digital readout with uber accuracy like we had in the military. So typically they land with 1 hour or more of fuel remaining, just to be sure / have options.

Airports / FBOs where they have stopped sometimes fail to top the planes off. A stoopid pilot may take the word of high school dropout line rat who refueled the plane that it's "Topped Off". But they get a ladder out and check every, single, time.

Leave the plane overnight? Check again. We've had fuel stolen from the tanks before by some meth-heads who broke onto an airfield - no, we don't go there anymore either and I think we were one of their only customers.