ANC94LA057

The student pilot was completing an extended cross country flight. Fuel exhaustion occurred two minutes prior to final landing and the pilot ditched the airplane.

On May 24, 1994, at 1256 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Cessna 152 airplane, N94583, experienced a total power loss while approaching near Kenai, Alaska and the pilot executed a forced landing in Cook Inlet, off the mouth of the Kenai River. The student pilot swam to shore without injury and the airplane sustained substantial damage and sank. The flight was conducted as a solo student cross-county flight, round-robin from Kenai to Talkeetna under 14 CFR Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions existed for the VFR flight. A VFR flight plan was on file for the initial leg of the flight, but not the final legs.

The student pilot told the FAA radio controller that his engine was running rough as he approached Kenai airport and that he had "a fuel problem." He was seen to crash near shore. After swimming to shore, he told investigators that he had topped off the fuel in Talkeetna. He said that just prior to the event, while performing touch and go landings at the Soldotna airport, he noticed that the right tank was "very low and the left tank was below five gallons."

Investigators were told by the student's instructor that the student route planning had included a fuel stop at Homer, however the student had elected to depart that intermediate stop without refueling or filing a VFR flight plan for the final leg to Kenai.

Preliminary calculations indicate that the airplane had departed Talkeetna with 22.5 gallons (usable) fuel and flown for approximately 2.75 hours which included approaches and landings at Homer and Soldotna.

Investigators from the FAA and the NTSB were told by pilots flying the route between Homer and Soldotna at the time of the accident that strong headwinds of about 30 knots below 10,000 feet from the north greatly reduced groundspeed. (See attached statement from pilot Charles Rediske.)