airplanes and helicopters, so it seems likely someone would have been there to answer the phone and would have had the resources to perform the search.) If that conversation wasn’t helpful, the fairly busy Liberal (Kansas) Mid-America Regional Airport (KLBL) was less than 40 nm to the north-northwest—not the direction of the patrol route but well within their existing fuel supply. The published reports don’t state
whether the pilot communicated his plan to refuel at Comanche County back to his employers, but that information would surely have helped them decide how to manage the situation. Finally, whereas gasoline engines can’t burn jet fuel—misfueling has caused deto- nation progressing to several catastrophic engine failures—turbine engines have some ability to burn gas. The operations manual for the Rolls-Royce M250 engine
lists MIL-G-5572E, essentially aviation gas- oline of whatever octane rating, as an emergency fuel to be burned with the boost pump on for no more than six hours per turbine overhaul cycle. The Bell 206B flight manual doesn’t seem to mention this option, however, so we can’t fault the pilot for not knowing that pumping 15 or 20 gallons of avgas at Comanche County would have gotten them to Pratt.
The Takeaway Even in the densely populated regions that boast multiple full-service FBOs within any 50-mile radius, availability of fuel is never guaranteed. Whether due to mechanical problems with the truck (where there’s no self-service), the self-service pump (where there’s no truck), or the only staffer taking an off-air- port lunch break on a slow day, situations arise in which a planned fuel stop sud- denly isn’t one. The question is, what do you do then? Numerous factors figure into the
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answer. How much fuel do you have left? Do you know where the nearest alterna- tive source might be? Can you reach someone to help you figure that out if you don’t have the answer at your fingertips? It’s already given that the day’s plans are going to need some readjustment, so don’t be afraid to step back and focus on the bigger picture: the aircraft isn’t going to fly long after the fuel runs out, and the consequences of an unplanned landing are almost never better than those of a flight that concludes as planned. Far-flung rural airports—often unat- tended, perhaps with self-serve equip- ment of unpredictable reliability—compound those concerns, and their operators aren’t necessarily energetic about filing NOTAMs advising of outages. This places a still heavier burden on the pilot or dispatch office to confirm fuel supplies before taking to the air. In both situations, however, one fact remains constant: Landing because you don’t have enough fuel is wise. Taking off for the same reason isn’t.
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