Air Tindi

[sunk]

His point is made in response to someone mumbling about "...air in tanks" which is what you say when you're too cowardly to accuse another pilot of fuel mismanagement. He offered a different view from the president of Air Tindi.

I’m am not a coward, I said it was rumoured to be lack of fuel. Now that is fact, yes they were idiots to depart with insufficient fuel.

[digits_]

How accurate are the fuel gauges in a twin otter?

Is there a reliable way to dip the tanks?

[Donald]

How accurate are the fuel gauges in a twin otter?

Is there a reliable way to dip the tanks?

They didn't even make it 1/2 way.

Unless the guages were grossly lying, this has nothing to do with them.

[LurkingRaven]

removed

[imjustlurking]

His point is made in response to someone mumbling about "...air in tanks" which is what you say when you're too cowardly to accuse another pilot of fuel mismanagement. He offered a different view from the president of Air Tindi.

I’m am not a coward, I said it was rumoured to be lack of fuel. Now that is fact, yes they were idiots to depart with insufficient fuel.

I'm sure it's easy to say that in hindsight, but I highly doubt that anyone would knowingly leave without enough fuel to complete a trip.

[Invertago]

No one purposefully leaves with not enough fuel to make it, but plenty of people cut corners out of greed or laziness.

[RegionalPilot]

With the distance flown, I’m assuming they had 30 mins of fuel left when they departed, which represents minimum day VFR reserve from the previous flight.

I can only assume someone forgot to order fuel, or departed before getting the fuel from their supplier.

In relation to the president’s comment re: the potential engine failure, the Twin Otter has two separate belly tanks, each of them feeding their own engine. Assuming one engine burns a few extra pounds per hour, the first engine will eventually run out of fuel, then after doing the shutdown drill and run some checks, maybe call company, divert to the closest airport, which then your second engine will fail on you due to fuel starvation in it’s assigned tank.

Seems like this is the most plausible scenario. As of why someone doesn’t check for fuel before taxing out, I’m looking forward to read a 100 page report that will outline exactly what is the swiss cheese model.

[pelmet]

How accurate are the fuel gauges in a twin otter?

Is there a reliable way to dip the tanks?

I seem to remember a Twin Otter(possibly Borek) on floats that had a faulty fuel guage(or guages) and they were dipping the tanks to measure them with some sort of measuring device that turned out to be inaccurate. An engine flamed out and they landed on a lake with less fuel than they thought they would have at that point when they departed. Anyone remember that?

Overall, I would say the main tank guages are pretty good while wing tip guages(if installed) were less reliable(subject to confirmation by others).

[pelmet]

I can only assume someone forgot to order fuel, or departed before getting the fuel from their supplier.

We had that happen once on a larger aircraft. An F/O that had a history of problems and an old time captain known for being slack. Not sure why they were not refueled.

The was a long pre-flight checklist which some captains expected to have been completed by the F/O by the time the captain came on board, which was sometimes very close to departure time after chatting away in dispatch.

I suspect that the checklist was done with the fuel not uplifted yet and was forgotten or the checklist was never done.

At least these guys caught it while taxiing out and had to taxi back. Maybe the told the pax that the forecast had changed creating a requirement for more fuel.

Therefore, I never did this checklist until fuelling was complete.

[SeptRepair]

No fuel in Tanks.jpg (58.95 KiB) Viewed 3661 times

Stolen from facebook

[Frozenwhirlybird]

No fuel in Tanks.jpg
Stolen from facebook

I've seen this picture and a few others now. Looks like the nose gear is sunk or bent back and the main is angled back a bit. Some wrinkling on the nose but that's it for visible damage from what I was able to see, obviously there will be significant structural damage after landing in half frozen swamp. There's some muck on top of the cockpit. Props and wings don't look like they touched anything. TBH, it looks like they sat it down at very low speed, threw up some swamp water and came to a sudden stop.

[digits_]

Props and wings don't look like they touched anything.

At least the engines weren't running.

[J31]

Sunset was about 540pm and it sounds like they touched down in the dark at 647 pm. Lots of march meadows north of Providence but they were very lucky to get down safely in the dark.

It is alleged they ran out of fuel. If they did it would go something like this:

Things probably got real for them when a low fuel light illuminated. Then the other tank low fuel light came on and the oh F@#K sense came over them. About 15 minutes after the forward tank low fuel light illuminated the number 1 engine flamed out. The number 2 engine would have flamed out about 20 minutes after the rear tank low fuel light illuminated.

Twin otter fuel gauges are usually fairly accurate and the low fuel lights are very accurate.

That is the way it goes in the Twin otter running out of fuel. I have never been in that position in the Twin Otter, but I know that if you the low fuel lights on, you want to be on the ground ASAP!

[bring me the horizon]

No fuel in Tanks.jpg
Stolen from facebook

it looks like they sat it down at very low speed, threw up some swamp water and came to a sudden stop.

It's amazing what you can do with a twin when you're light

[WestTexasDeathPencil]

No fuel in Tanks.jpg
Stolen from facebook

I've seen this picture and a few others now. Looks like the nose gear is sunk or bent back and the main is angled back a bit. Some wrinkling on the nose but that's it for visible damage from what I was able to see, obviously there will be significant structural damage after landing in half frozen swamp. There's some muck on top of the cockpit. Props and wings don't look like they touched anything. TBH, it looks like they sat it down at very low speed, threw up some swamp water and came to a sudden stop.

More than likely the case. Station 60 (the bulkhead that the nosegear is attached to) is generally regarded as being the weakest point on the Twin Otter. Lot of work to fix, but most of the Twin Otters I've flown have had it repaired at one point or another.

[cncpc]

Assuming one engine burns a few extra pounds per hour, the first engine will eventually run out of fuel, then after doing the shutdown drill and run some checks, maybe call company, divert to the closest airport,

Unless I've forgotten my geography of that area, divert to the nearest highway might have been the best option.

Regardless of whatever criticism might be directed at the crew over fuel exhaustion, it happened. When it did, they flew with what they had left and they did a good job of that. Was there any moon that night? I don't think so.

[RegionalPilot]

Assuming one engine burns a few extra pounds per hour, the first engine will eventually run out of fuel, then after doing the shutdown drill and run some checks, maybe call company, divert to the closest airport,

Unless I've forgotten my geography of that area, divert to the nearest highway might have been the best option.

Regardless of whatever criticism might be directed at the crew over fuel exhaustion, it happened. When it did, they flew with what they had left and they did a good job of that. Was there any moon that night? I don't think so.

There is no nearest highway. Where they went down, they already passed thru what looks like HWY 5. Too low I assume to glide back toward the road.

[Frozenwhirlybird]

Assuming one engine burns a few extra pounds per hour, the first engine will eventually run out of fuel, then after doing the shutdown drill and run some checks, maybe call company, divert to the closest airport,

Unless I've forgotten my geography of that area, divert to the nearest highway might have been the best option.

Regardless of whatever criticism might be directed at the crew over fuel exhaustion, it happened. When it did, they flew with what they had left and they did a good job of that. Was there any moon that night? I don't think so.

Highway is on the other side of providence. It’s now been slung out, a couple pics floating around somewhere.

[Frozenwhirlybird]

M

[co-joe]

I'm late to the bash fest but has a fuel leak been ruled out? it seems really odd to me that they were that short.