"Indeed Englishal, have had the 'no visible fuel' scare myself. Although I think fuel exhaustion is 100% pilot negligence, I also think it's something that could happen to any of us should we become complacent."
Hmmm!
Not always ... aircraft can burn more than expected or even develop leaks don't forget
Another time my VP2 tried to "get me" was about my third or forth flight....
I filled the tank for a 1 hour flight ( tank full should have theoretically lasted 2 hours ) to go visit a farm strip. One hour later circling the area where the strip should be my engine quit
I straightened up and headed toward another airstrip nearby but realised I wouldn't make it so picked a field and put out a "Mayday" call. The engine picked up a bit and I decided I might just make the airstrip (not generally recommended!). Luckily I did but the engine stopped on short finals... so it was way too close!!!
Was I negligence? Maybe ... but in my defence I'll tell you what really happened. The fuel tank of a VP2 is a very wide flat-bottomed tank with a small sump. At the bottom of the sump is a finger strainer. As the aeroplane was new to me what I didn't know was that the floaty cork type fuel gauge on this VP drops down into the sump and still bobs about showing fuel (albeit low) when there is virtually no fuel in the tank. Also the finger strainer was epoxied in place (it should be removable) and when I later ripped out the tank I discovered only the top 1cm wasn't gummed up!
As I was circling looking for the field THAT WAS RIGHT BELOW ME
The fuel all slopped to one side of that flat bottomed tank. When I straightened up some slopped back into the sump and gave me some extended time, until even that little dribble disappeared!
Maybe I was negligent but come on ... can you believe a VW1834 could use nearly 7 gallons in one hour!!! ... ( the twin choke webber float was ******ed too!!! ) .....
BEWARE NEW AEROPLANES ... especially homebuilt!
SS .... who knows a LOT more now!