“Out of gas in air. God help us,” texted the Cessna 172 passenger to a family member. It was what the British call Boxing Day on December 26, 2021. The pilot was the passenger’s boyfriend. They were flying at 4,000 feet over Ash Flat, Arkansas. Night was falling. She would send no more texts.
They had spent Christmas with his family in Illinois and were flying home to Arkansas. It’s about 850 nm from the Gen-Airpark Airport (3GB) in Geneseo, Illinois, to the Walnut Ridge Regional Airport (KARG) in Arkansas. He planned to stop for fuel at the Bowling Green Municipal Airport (H19) in Missouri. It sounds like a beautiful VFR flight—low, slow, and watching the countryside change from fields to scenic hills. The boyfriend was a VFR private pilot with about 380 hours logged, properly certificated, and current.
The airplane was his 1964 Cessna 172 E, white with blue and yellow trim. The Skyhawk was cared for, and he had recently added a few new upgrades. It wasn’t equipped for instrument flying but did have an FAA-approved supplemental type certificate (STC) to use automotive gasoline. Being able to use regular gas poured into the tanks from portable jerrycans, rather than needing aviation 100LL, provides a lot of flexibility. But it did mean the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) couldn’t form an exact fuel quantity history from FBO records. However, from the…
Source www.planeandpilotmag.com
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