NTSB Factual Report

On May 14, 2004 at 0851 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-32-260, N3260W, registered to and operated by a private pilot, collided with the ground during a forced landing at Craven County Regional Airport in New Bern, North Carolina. The personal flight operated under the provisions of Title 14 CFR Part 91, and visual flight rules. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The pilot was not injured and the airplane sustained substantial damaged. The flight originated from Kimrey Airport in Mebane, North Carolina, on May 14, 2004 at 0730.

According to the pilot, he departed a grass airstrip which had no fuel available enroute to Michael J. Smithfield in Beaufort, North Carolina. The pilot felt that the fuel gauges were unreliable and used a home made dipstick to dip the fuel tanks. He reported that he had 35 gallons of fuel onboard. From previous flights the pilot estimated that 17 gallons of fuel was all that would be required to make the trip. The pilot stated that he had recently had a new engine installed with instructions to operate it with the mixture in the full rich setting during the break-in period, so the flight was conducted with the mixture set in this position. He said that unexpected headwinds were encountered at his cruising altitude of 5,500 feet. He stated that he was originally on the left main tank when the engine sputtered and quit, at this point after checking the fuel gauges, he switched to the right main tank and called ATC at Cherry Point, North Carolina for flight following to Craven County Airport in New Bern, North Carolina. After about three minutes of operation on the right tank, the engine began sputtering and quit, the pilot then switched to fuel selector to each of the four tanks individually but was unable to restart the engine. The pilot then established a 100 mile-per-hour glide and proceeded through his engine failure check list.

New Bern tower had authorized an emergency landing on any runway and had alerted the airport fire and rescue vehicles. During his decent the pilot raised his flaps from the approach setting to zero this resulted in a greater sink rate. Unable to make the runway, the airplane contacted the downhill side of a knoll at 100 mph, and bounced 195 feet where it contacted the ground and stopped short of runway 04. The pilot was uninjured and during a subsequent interview he readily admitted that the engine was running fine when it quit and that he ran out of fuel. The pilot had over flown several airports where additional fuel could have been purchased.

Examination of the airplane revealed that the fuel gauges showed empty and visual examination of the fuel tanks verified that there was only one or two cups of fuel in the right main tank. There was no evidence of fuel leaks and the ground under and around the airplane was dry. The fuel tank selector was in the left main tank position. The airplane sustained damage to both main and nose landing gear. Both wings were buckled, and wrinkling was noted on the fuselage skin. There were no pre-existing mechanical discrepencies noted during the post-accident examination of the airplane.

NTSB Probable Cause

The pilot's inadequate pre-flight planning which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.