CHI83LA196

The plt had recently purchased the amphibious acft, had received 6.7 hrs dual instruction & was indorsed for solo flt. During a x-country from elizabethton, TN, he landed at richmond, KY & purchased 23. 8 gal of fuel. On the next leg to lafayette, IN, he made some hdg & alt changes to avoid wx. Also on that leg, he recalculated his fuel consumption & estimated he had sufficient fuel to continue to warsaw, IN. At lafayette, he made a minor repair, then took off without refueling. While en route to warsaw, the eng lost power. The plt restarted it, but it ran only 2 to 3 sec, then would not restart. He began an emergency, wheels-up landing in a wheat field, but saw a power line & did not have enough speedto fly over it. While flying under the wires, the floats hita bank & the plane crashed. No fuel was found in the fuel tanks. Gasket material was found in a fuel screen, but later, the eng was run with the material in the screen & it ran normally. Aprx 145 gal of fuel had been used in 8.2 hrs of flt, which included many landings.