20110821018479I

On August 21, 2011, at approximately 1739 hours aircraft Beechcraft C23, N1801E, s/n M-2305 made an emergency landing on a farm field one mile west of Tamiami executive general airport (tmb). The aircraft was on a 14 CFR part 91 leisure flight. The pilot stated that he conducted a preflight and a visual check of the left and right fuel tank indicated that the fuel level was about half an inch from the bottom of the fuel tank tab. This correlates to about fifteen gallons of fuel in each fuel tank. He calculated that with a 9.5 gallons of fuel per hour he had about three hours of flight time remaining. After the preflight and the engine run up were conducted, the aircraft departed the north perry airport (hwo) runway 9 left at about 1815 hours. The pilot contacted the miami approach control and was assigned transponder code 0150 and was cleared to proceed on a easterly heading toward the miami shore line. Upon reaching the ocean reef airport, miami approach control contacted the pilot and was assigned transponder code 1200. At this time, the fuel selector was changed to the right fuel tank. The pilot proceeded on a south west heading until reaching the city of tavernier. At this time, the pilot turned to a northerly heading. When the pilot reached the everglade coastline, again, he changed the fuel selector to the left fuel tank. He contacted the miami approach control and was assigned transponder code 4346. As he continued on a northerly heading, he passed the tmb airport at 1,500 feet. At this time, the engine started to cut off and he immediately applied full rich mixture, fuel pump, and changed the fuel selector to the right fuel tank. The pilot stated on his written report that "the left fuel gauge was on empty and while right fuel gauge was in the yellow band". He then called the miami approach control and notified them that he was diverting to the tmb airport instead of continuing to the hwo airport as he had planned. He contacted the tmb airport tower and reported his position. The pilot stated on his written report that " shortly, still at 1,500 feet altitude the engine started to become irregular and loosing power again, reported the situation to tmb tower suspecting fuel starvation". The tmb tower gave him priority and he was cleared to runway nine left. The pilot had the runway in sight, however, even with the power lever to full power, the engine power was becoming more and more intermittent and he was unable to maintain altitude. Due to the engine complete lost of power, the pilot made an emergency landing on a large plowed farm field located about a mile west of the end of tmb airport runway nine left. On August 22, 2011, personnel from this office inspected the aircraft and no physical damage to the aircraft was noticed. The left and right fuel tanks caps were removed and no signs of fuel was noticed inside of the fuel tanks. The left and right fuel tank manual drains were opened and a small amount of fuel was drained from both left and right wing fuel tanks. The engine gascolator sump was opened and no fuel came out. During the interview with the pilot he stated that the aircraft was last refueled on July 30, 2011 and on the same date the aircraft flew 4.0 hours per the hobb meter. On August 21, 2011, the date of the emergency landing the aircraft flew 1.6 hours before the engine stop running. Per the hobb meter the aircraft flew a total of 5.6 hours without being refueled. On August 23, 2011, the aircraft was transported from the off field landing location to the tmb airport. At the tmb airport the aircraft was refueled and it took 58 gallons of fuel. The aircraft is type certificated to hold 59.8 gallons total with 57.2 usable fuel. On August 24, 2011, the aircraft was inspected and returned to service. The aircraft was repositioned from tmb airport to hwo airport without any discrepancy.