The accident happened during the pilot’s first flight in his homebuilt Zenith STOL CH801. It also was the first flight after a condition inspection.
After an uneventful takeoff from the airport in Apison, Tennessee, the airplane experienced a total loss of engine power during the initial climb about 800 feet above ground level.
The pilot was unable to restart the engine, so he performed a forced landing to a grassy clearing about one mile from the runway. During the rollout, the plane hit thick vegetation and trees, which resulted in substantial damage to the fuselage and wings.
A post-accident examination of the airplane revealed that the left fuel tank was empty and the right fuel tank contained about 12 gallons.
Additionally, the fuel selector placards for LEFT and RIGHT were mislabeled backwards.
The pilot reported that prior to takeoff, there was about 15 gallons of fuel in the right fuel tank and “only a couple of gallons” in the left fuel tank. As a result, he placed the fuel selector toward the sticker-type placard that stated RIGHT, although the fuel selector was pointed toward the left wing.
According to the pilot, the most recent condition inspection did not involve any action that would have involved the fuel selector placards.
Review of past maintenance records found several instances of fuel system maintenance, however, no entry described an action about placards at the fuel selector. Therefore, the investigation was unable to identify when the fuel tanks became incorrectly placarded.
Probable Cause: A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation, as a result of an incorrectly placarded fuel selector.
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This October 2020 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Similar situation with John Denver I his home built.
Johns mistake was to put the fuel selector into CLOSED instead of the reserve position
as in motor scooters
John, didn’t add any fuel, and when he tried to change tanks, he couldn’t reach the selector which was over his left shoulder… a bit different.!
Who takes off with “a couple of gallons in any tank”. Not I. Or is it not me?
My airplane pilot buddy keeps wondering why I don’t accept his offer to train me to fly. I refer him to this site with it’s DAILY litany of crashed due to a myriad of causes. Nope. Not worth my life. I’ll stick to ham radio. /J
I’ll bet that the fuel selector valve had been mislabeled from the time the aircraft was originally constructed .