2C worth from a CTSW Pilot.
I am similar in circumstances to the accident pilot; in ownership, age, experience, hours logged technical background etc; having bought my rather delightful CTSW six months ago and put 60 hours up on it so far.
Mainly I want to concentrate here on the report of engine stopping in what appears to be the final turn.
The two wing tanks are 65 litres each. This puts the plane pretty much top of the class
AFAIK regarding endurance. Flogging the 912 is 5.4 hrs to zero, double that if flown at the factory’s economic cruise. I have mooched around on as little as 9 l/hr.
This aircraft is sold as a microlight, VLA, S-LSA with perhaps 1800 produced to date all variants, but essentially the same plane except for:
- The earlier CT2K had fuel changeover valve, later changed to simple tee piece feed from the two wing tanks. This was the decision of the manufacturer, as the lesser risk, following in the field accident experience.
- The CTSW has these two tanks, with inboard feeds to the unvalved tee.
- The CTLS has additional slosh tanks, small inboard compartments with restricting flapvalves that trap a quantity of fuel over that feed pipe.
All versions have in the wing root sight gauges, but the very flat tanks, and the CTLS slosh tank can lead to some counterintuitive readings. A detailed discussion of this is here:
Flight Design CTsw Forum.... :: View topic - CTLS Fuel Balance
In particular the words of Russ and Xrayspecs are relevant to this event.
Bottom line: fly true or else your engine will starve before all the fuel is gone.
It takes me more attention than I want to give, to achieve this result, but I have done it to within a few litres on a long trip.
Others here may know of similar characteristic in flat tanked aircraft. Is this a fault or a quirk? It may take a fatality and a court case before this question gets answered. There needs to be total clarity when specifying what “usable fuel” means here. The ongoing improvements suggest the manufacturers are responsive to the problem. I wonder what the position is in relation to older craft without the slosh tanks?
Finally don’t be hard on the dude, at least on this point. IMHO (amateur shrink) and to give him the benefit of the doubt, he was in some sort of shock elation (the joys of survival) and at that moment WAS Biggles. Ever been Biggles?