Pilot forgot to turn fuel on.

[PPRuNe Pop]

This from The Sun.

Pilot blunder killed Brits over UFO lines| The Sun |News

[A and C]

I very much doubt that the pilot failed to turn the fuel on as the aircraft could not have got as far as it did with the fuel down stream of a shut fuel valve.

There has been talk that the aircraft was mis-fueled and this seems a far more likely as it would have resulted in the engine taking far longer to fail, if the fuel valve was in the closed position is it not likely that it was put in that position during the engine failure drills ?

[IO540]

I think you could achieve this if you were parked at the start of the runway, skipped the engine checks (which a some people do if the engine is already warm, and in a hurry - I did it once myself) etc.

[BackPacker]

Or the fuel was turned on, and the pilot did something stupid at the "switch to fullest tank" pre-take-off instruction.

I once did a similar thing in a DR400-160 (with the saddle tanks). Wanting to switch from one of the saddle tanks to the main (center) tank, I moved the selector to the forward position.

As it turns out, in that aircraft the forward position was "off", and the backwards position was "main". Fortunately the passenger in the RHS was also a pilot and caught this immediately. At 1000 feet, I doubt whether we would have been able to get the engine going again before the altitude would have run out.

[A and C]

Backpacker

That is why you should always switch to the fullest tank before the engine run up checks, if you decide to change tanks after that do another engine run up.

That way you are checking the whole fuel system just before the most critical phase of flight for a SEP.

For those who have never flown the Robin some of them have four fuel tanks and one of those tanks won't feed the last seven or so liters when the aircraft is in the climbing attitude so some pre-planning is required to make sure that this tank is the first that you empty, to add to this the truly foolish could also drive the C of G out of limits by emptying the tanks in the wrong order.

[Roff]

I also ran the engine once with the fuel selector in the off position, I didn't know why the engine died at first! Luckily i was on the ground and it was a good lesson to looking at the checklist properly from then onwards

Sad that their has been a loss of life

[FlyingKiwi_73]

I'd be surprise if that was the cause. I'm very conscious of what I'm doing with the fuel selector on run up and in flight, my pre take off checks also include a glance at the fuel selector. I talk myself through it.

Pump On
Switch tank
Pump Off
Fuel pressure remains..

Is it more likely that it was contamination? fueling from drums etc.. more likely in the 'woods' maybe somebody turned the cock to OFF post crash to prevent fire?

Now... carb heat on whilst doing go-rounds/touch and go's...thats another thing entirely...

[Big Pistons Forever]

It looks like a Cessna C 185. Like all high winged Cessnas with fuel injected engines, the aircraft has a small collector tank which takes fuel downstream from the fuel selector. It holds enough fuel to allow this kind of accident to occur.

[maxred]

Fell for that one also. The Bonanza has Off - left - right.

Picked it up after maintenance, all checks done, started, engine died, and I could not figure out. Even called the maintenance team from the cockpit.

The chief asked me to check fuel position, I said I had. It was in the Off position.

Another, I learned about Flying from that. Guess what checks I religiously do now

[Pilot DAR]

the aircraft could not have got as far as it did with the fuel down stream of a shut fuel valve.

Depending upon the model, maybe..

A few 185's had a both/left/right/off selector, then the one gallon or so accumulator tank, then a firewall shut off. If the fuel selector was off, but the firewall shut off on, you'd have a gallon available form the accumulator tank, and that would get you airborne.

That system was changed in later model years.

That said, there are other ways to stop a 185 (particularly modified ones) with fuel exhaustion, but I know nothing of this event, so speculation is not appropriate.

[ExSp33db1rd]

My final check, just before applying full power is - Wot's going to kill me this time ? Fuel ? Flaps ? Crosswind ? make up your own. ( usually from past experience ! which is how checklists came about in the first place. I bet the Wright Brothers didn't have a checklist on their first flight - but then they hadn't made a mistake up to that point, yet !

[Pace]

As the old military saying goes " You dont really know your aircraft till you can fly it without a checklist" Then use a checklist!

Pace

[IO540]

Looking at the photo, their problem wasn't that they had no engine power.

Their problem was that they didn't know how to fly a plane. They seemed to have stalled it deeply and went straight down - AF447-style.