Are We Out Of Fuel Over The Ocean?

Are We Out Of Fuel?
Whether over the water or over land this is a perfect example of why you want to plan out your x-country trips down to the last detail… whether you are going across the state of out of the country. Plan Plan Plan - because problems happen and you need to be prepared. You need a plan B C D E and F to make sure you have everything covered.
This was the first leg of the C-206 delivery to Manaus Brazil, and it was from FXE to Provo, Turks and Caicos - refuel and then on to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for day 1. We started off with 100 gallons of fuel at Fort Lauderdale and had planned for landing in Provo with 2 hours of fuel / 29 gallons remaining ….
You want to be prepared for any emergency, because if it can happen, chances are it will… and it did. About an hour into the flight I was looking at the fuel gauges and something didn’t appear right.
The issue: Do we have a leak? In just under 2 hours of flight at 12.9 gallons an hour our gauges told us we had only 2 hours/ 30 gallons of fuel left- we needed to get on the ground and verify - do we have a leak, or it is failed fuel senders.
w- if you have to stop for an em emergency Nassau is the place- the FBO is beautiful- they were extremely helpful and all we really needed to do was to dip out tanks- if we had all of our fuel we would gas up and go. If not, we would see how bad the leak is and plan from there.
After a quick tank dip-we had all of our fuel- disaster averted - a bonus bathroom stop and we were off.
It was only a 45 minute delay, but the peace of mind knowing that we did not have a fuel leak was priceless. Now off to Turks and Caicos and the DR… and you will find out what you need to fly your own airplane throughout the Caribbean…. which you will see in the next program!
Yes! I bought an airplane! This program has some initial numbers and breaks down the monthly expenses. Owning an airplane can be affordable... but the upgrades.... That is what will get me. Watch this program to find out what ownership costs.
Have you always wanted to learn how to fly but now you are over 50? Get out there and start and learn! There are so many people in there 50's and 60's who are just starting to fly so what are you waiting for?

[@rn2811]

It’s always nice to have a second pair of eyes looking at the gauges because we all been guilty of fixation when It comes to flying.

[@marciorempel]

The Cessna 206 doesn't have a BOTH position on fuel tank selector, so we flew 1h on each tank, or, we switched between tanks every hour of flight. And used the computer totalizer of fuel used to note how much fuel still was available in each tank. Every landing we checked the remaining fuel wit a dipstick and it worked pretty well, almost perfect. Now, the plane is in Brazil already doing paperwork for nationalization. After it is ready, we will rerig the senders and hope it works well too.

[@md4droid]

Wow, glad it was just a faulty fuel sensor. That had to be a little troubling over the water. Great video, can't wait to see the rest of the trip. Would really love to be able to help ferry a plane like that.

[@sellakc]

Glad you had somewhere close to stop and check!!! I’m with you - I would have definitely done the same! Trust but verify!!! Great video!

[@tds456]

Great video. We can all hope we'd be that calm and collected if it happened to us. Definitely looking forward to the next one and seeing more about the flight planning side.

[@soiboughtabus9563]

Those fuel leaks can be expensive, in more ways than one.

[@Parr4theCourse]

Yep . . . Trust but Verify!!!

[@lucabaldoni8911]

what happened to the rest of the trip? no more videos? :)

[@Over50andLearningToFly]

I’ll get some up as soon as I can ! Thanks for watching !

[@BuffaloWarrior7]

How were you able to fix the fuel senders? Don't actually know anything about flying just watch a lot of videos on KZbin. Edit: had to re-watch to make sure you said fuel senders? And not fuel sensors? I understand being able to just ignore a faulty fuel level sensor, and just trust the math on your fuel burn, distance, and reserve. But I swear I'm hearing you say fuel senders not sensors.

[@Over50andLearningToFly]

We didn't fix them- and I forgot to put the most important part in there! :-) We had to ignore our fuel gauges for the rest of the trip and do our fuel calculations manually- Hopefully people will figure that out... It was the fuel senders - just because I have the same unit in my plane and I was expecting them to go bad when I put them in- but mine were fine. He will replace them at some point- Thanks for watching!

[@BuffaloWarrior7]

@@Over50andLearningToFly thanks, I did some Googling and learned a fuel sender sends a signal indicating how much fuel is left. As a layman I'd assume a fuel sender sends fuel- not an electric signal to a gauge that turns the fuel sender data into a visual indication of fuel remaining.