Look in your tanks before every departure

[FloridaMan]

I was talking to a pilot recently who said he lost both engines in a twin that he'd preflighted the night before. He successfully dead sticked it in for a landing and that somebody had stolen the fuel out of his tanks during the night. I know of a local airport where a guy working in a shop on the field got busted stealing fuel from airplanes as well. 

[rbridges]

if you can afford a plane, you can afford the gas.  A-holes are everywhere I guess.

[kmyfm20s]

I do check my fuel and oil before every flight. This is a habit developed mostly from flying into Mexico but also to some non secure airports in the U.S. I have had friends, luckily not me, that had their fuel stolen or contaiminated in such airports. Fortunately they figured it out before taking off and I have never had to deal with it.

[carusoam]

Check the top.

Check the bottom.

Every tank, every flight.

It makes me feel better about myself.

Best regards,

-a-

[cliffy]

Preflight is one thing  Looking at the gauges when verifying the tank selector is another. I thought everyone looked at the gauges before takeoff- don't they?  If the fuel was stolen the tanks would show empty. If one did a preflight and then saw (at a later time) both tanks showing something other than what was seen on the preflight why would one take off? 

Somethings not right here.

[WardHolbrook]

A preflight the night before? Seriously? I'm sorry, but that's not a preflight, it's a "Let's go to the hangar and look at the airplane". Honestly, how long does it take to do an adequate preflight? Nobody needs to be in that big of a hurry. I've said this before, whenever I find myself rushing doing anything associated with flying an airplane, I find that my screwup rate increases dramatically unless I slow down and become very deliberate. That guy is going to be spending some quality one on one time with the Feds. I doubt that they will view it as a preflight either. Just saying.

[Lood]

Standard procedure for me, fuel and oil, before every flight and I always dip the tanks when they're anything less than full, even when the airplane was locked up in the hangar.

[xcrmckenna]

Do they make locking fuel caps for Mooneys?

[Danb]

Get real..what a moron..

[Mooneymite]

I landed at a small airport In MS where the police were investigating the theft of avgas out of several airplanes. The airport manager said it was probably due to the local stock car race track nearby. They use avgas fuel in their engines, too.

Fuel in your tank when you land doesn't mean it will be there when you takeoff.

Apparently fuel thieves prefer low-wing aircraft because they don't need a ladder.

[PTK]

"...Something's rotten in the State of Denmark!..."

Although it is conceivable he checked his fuel the night before and some was stolen. Maybe not enough to register close to empty on gauges.

Bottom line is he didn't know exactly how much fuel he took off with.

[Bob_Belville]

When I go to the airport for a flight, any flight, I go into "slow" mode. No rushing, no skipped steps, measure twice-cut once, mentality. I do not want to take off with the pitot tube cover on, a gas cap sitting on wing, the oil door loose, the baggage door unlatched, or any other stupidity not caught.

[DS1980]

If a pilot has a way to confirm they were the last person to touch the plane (private hangar), a preflight the night before is fine. The original topic was about taking off with empty tanks, not an anomaly that occurred due to a sloppy preflight.

Nothing beats one last look at the killer items though.

[Seth]

Should I have an early am departure, know I'll be pressed for time, or have a long/large trip coming up, I go to the hanger usually the night before and do a very thorough pre-flight.  I make sure the gas is topped off or at the level I want it at for the flight (as fueling can sometimes take time) and ensure the oil is where I want it.  If it needs a quart or a half quart, I take care of that the night/day before the big departure.  I also may double check supplies in the back, wipe down the windscreen, buff the spinner, etc . . . light general maintenance.  Check the lights - now that they are mainly LED, they don't burn out, but I still check, and in the past, replace a landing light if necessary.  Make sure the cabin is clean, etc . . .

 

Upon my arrival for the actual fight the next day, I still do my usual preflight, recheck the fuel of course (sump and visual) plus check oil again even if I just filled it to where it should be the night before.  Do the full walk around, etc . . . but it's nice knowing on those planned longer or particular trips that the airplane less than 24 hours prior is in good shape. 

 

Always pre-flight before a flight, but I see the advantage of sometimes doing an extended light maintenance check the day before a special or planned departure.

 

-Seth

[Seth]

Recently at my home base (KGAI - Gaithersburg, MD, just outside Washington DC), at least two pilots have reported missing fuel from their low wing aircraft.  One was a twin, one a single, both in hangers that were not entirely secured at the time.  One was about 18 gallons, the other between 20 and 40 gallons.  It's pretty obvious the fuel was stolen as one pilot who is on this board has checked his tanks repeatedly since, and there is no leak.  He had topped his tanks the day before after a flight and one tank was nearly empty during his preflight the next morning.

 

Self serve tanks were down during that period, so maybe someone needed late night fuel, but my guess is that someone was just stealing fuel.

 

-Seth

[Bob_Belville]

 

Should I have an early am departure, know I'll be pressed for time, or have a long/large trip coming up, I go to the hanger usually the night before and do a very thorough pre-flight.  I make sure the gas is topped off or at the level I want it at for the flight (as fueling can sometimes take time) and ensure the oil is where I want it.  If it needs a quart or a half quart, I take care of that the night/day before the big departure.  I also may double check supplies in the back, wipe down the windscreen, buff the spinner, etc . . . light general maintenance.  Check the lights - now that they are mainly LED, they don't burn out, but I still check, and in the past, replace a landing light if necessary.  Make sure the cabin is clean, etc . . .

 

Upon my arrival for the actual fight the next day, I still do my usual preflight, recheck the fuel of course (sump and visual) plus check oil again even if I just filled it to where it should be the night before.  Do the full walk around, etc . . . but it's nice knowing on those planned longer or particular trips that the airplane less than 24 hours prior is in good shape. 

 

Always pre-flight before a flight, but I see the advantage of sometimes doing an extended light maintenance check the day before a special or planned departure.

 

-Seth

 

Ditto. I am 15 minutes from the airport and can go by often to do your "light general maintenance" thingies.

[bonal]

No matter what I visually check the oil and tanks as part of my preflight even if i prepped the plane the night before. When I have made mistakes is when there is a situation where something is not right and my focus tends to be on that one item like a battery that starts acting up then my thoughts seem to get fixated and I have made mistakes. I have to concetrate on the big picture and focus on the details at the same time.

Then factor in all of lifes stress the challenges of a complex flight plan etc. its good to slow down. some times I have been distracted during a preflight and when that happened I went back to my starting point and began again.

[triple8s]

One time, the last time I rushed to take off, a thunderstorm was coming, I had plan filed, really was in a hurry to get outta there. I even got to the run up area, did my run up and thought to myself I latched that baggage door didn't I? SURELY I did...........I very soon had a drill on being sure to make flying the airplane top priority. At rotate speed my baggage door popped open, was leaving the ground and wasn't sure I could get stopped in time. I flew around the patch, things flying around everywhere in the cabin, saw a pair of A20's whirling around in mid air in the baggage compartment. I made a good landing, taxied off the active and closed the door which is now a reminder of several things I did that day, some wrong, one thing right. I made a big mistake yes, but I flew the plane, will I rush things again? Not a chance. My beautiful mooney now has a kinked skin on the baggage door, anyone that sees it, knows I screwed up. I could have fixed it ASAP but I have it there as a reminder of what my stupidity did and also what it might have done. Lesson? Never ever ever rush unless the zombies are close and ALWAYS use a checklist! I may have it fixed oneday, but for now it is a reminder of what I did wrong that day.

I am OCD on fuel, I always check it and I am in a locked hangar, I also sample and sump first. Why? Because if a drain doesn't seal properly I will catch it on the exterior preflight before take off. I can't imagine not opening the fuel caps and looking or sticking the tanks before flight.

[WardHolbrook]

If a pilot has a way to confirm they were the last person to touch the plane (private hangar), a preflight the night before is fine. The original topic was about taking off with empty tanks, not an anomaly that occurred due to a sloppy preflight.

Nothing beats one last look at the killer items though.

I respectfully disagree with this. I've seen things happen over night - ie brake fluid puddles that were not there the night before. In my working airplanes, the mechanics always do a "mechanics preflight" on our aircraft the night before one of our early AM launches and we still do our pilot's preflights and we occasionally will run across a discrepancy. 

 

Over the years, I've also developed a habit that I call "My last chance walk-around". Simply put, I never climb into an airplane without walking completely around it first. This last chance walk around has nothing to do with the normal pre-flight inspection and I do this even if I have just completed the normal pre-flight inspection. You'd be surprised at the things I've found over the years. Some days it can be a couple of hours between the preflight and when the passengers finally show up. Things can and do happen in the meantime. This practice has kept me from embarrassing myself on more than one occasion.

[Andy95W]

Do they make locking fuel caps for Mooneys?

Actually, yes they do. Norm Smith (aka, "The Mooney Miser" from years ago) made a kit to modify the gas caps. Looks as though his company (Aero-Trim) is still making some of his old products. He unfortunately died in 2008; he was wonderfully nice guy.

http://www.aerotriminc.com/id2.html

http://www.aerotriminc.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/aerolockinstructions.pdf

[WardHolbrook]

...This also makes me think about the plane on the ramp in the Bahamas for a week ... having fuel stolen could be even more problematic because some airports we have gone to, while airports of entry, didn't sell 100LL and we packed "round-trip fuel." I am a new owner and there's always "one more thing I need to do," but I guess I really should make a measuring stick for the gas tanks?

At some of the international airports (mainly in Mexico and South America) that we frequented, we would also hire armed security to "babysit" our aircraft while we were in town. Sometime I felt that it was like paying protection money to the mob, but we never had any issues. I also use security tape on the fuel caps, engine access doors, cabin and baggage doors. The tape is almost impossible to defeat (and easy to remove when you get back home) and makes it readily apparent if anyone has tried anything nefarious.    

 

http://www.aircraftsecurity.com/company/ted/

[Ron McBride]

I flew home late one night about 7, and planned to leave at 8 the next morning.  I just parked the plane outside for the night and tied it down rather than putting it in the hanger all night.    Still had my gas, but had ice all over the plane.  Should have hangered it.

 

On long flights, I will go out to the airport the day before, fly the plane, fill it with gas and be ready for the next morning.  I always do a preflight the next day, just in case. 

 

If I fly for lunch, I will always do a check prior to flying home.  I will look in the tanks, may not sump them though.

 

I have found other aircraft the were airworthy yesterday, but not today. Always preflight.

 

Ron

[Seth]

Also, even if I check many items the night before I always do the final, what did I miss walk around the plane, a full 360 from about 10 feet outside the wingtip, so that I can just view the plane to see if anything looks "off."  After my final walk around, that's when I get in the airplane.

 

I tend to count antennas, look for anything out of place, just anything odd.  I caught a bracket that had cracked in the engine compartment once - it was the bracket for on of the induction hoses.  It was hanging from the nose gear wheel well.  It was a good catch as I'd have flown with an induction leak and potentially jammed nose gear (or just scraping from the bracket). 

 

The extra final walk around is just something I've always done since flight training.

 

-Seth

[WardHolbrook]

Also, even if I check many items the night before I always do the final, what did I miss walk around the plane, a full 360 from about 10 feet outside the wingtip, so that I can just view the plane to see if anything looks "off."  After my final walk around, that's when I get in the airplane.

 

I tend to count antennas, look for anything out of place, just anything odd.  I caught a bracket that had cracked in the engine compartment once - it was the bracket for on of the induction hoses.  It was hanging from the nose gear wheel well.  It was a good catch as I'd have flown with an induction leak and potentially jammed nose gear (or just scraping from the bracket). 

 

The extra final walk around is just something I've always done since flight training.

 

-Seth

I usually "fuel for the leg" and not just automatically top off the tanks at the end of each flight. I normally go out sometime the day before the flight and get the airplane fueled - especially if I've got an early AM takeoff. This gives any water or gunk in the fuel adequate time to settle out and make it to the sumps. The last thing you want to do is fuel, then immediately sump the fuel, then blast off. It takes time for stuff to settle out so what would be the point?  

Edited October 31, 2014 by WardHolbrook

[DS1980]

I respectfully disagree with this. I've seen things happen over night - ie brake fluid puddles that were not there the night before. In my working airplanes, the mechanics always do a "mechanics preflight" on our aircraft the night before one of our early AM launches and we still do our pilot's preflights and we occasionally will run across a discrepancy. 

 

Over the years, I've also developed a habit that I call "My last chance walk-around". Simply put, I never climb into an airplane without walking completely around it first. This last chance walk around has nothing to do with the normal pre-flight inspection and I do this even if I have just completed the normal pre-flight inspection. You'd be surprised at the things I've found over the years. Some days it can be a couple of hours between the preflight and when the passengers finally show up. Things can and do happen in the meantime. This practice has kept me from embarrassing myself on more than one occasion.

While looking at the killer items one last time (fuel, oil, airframe configuration), perhaps there are those who would not notice the puddle of fluid on the ground. I agree, pilots like that need to conduct a secondary preflight. For those of us with aircraft mechanic experience and eyes, my suggestion is sound. My post did not consider inexperience, my fault.

A "trick" I learned from my fighter pilots is to stand in front of the airplane and observe the airplane as a whole. Does it look like it can fly? Is the tail on straight? Does the dihedral look correct? (again, airframe config). The preflight has us looking at individual parts, but does not consider the aircraft as a whole. I think my look at the killer items and your walk around are more similar than different. Both great ideas from great minds, if I must say so myself.