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Well, I found myself in a situation entirely of my own making tonight and it's a bit embarrassing to say the least.    :-[

I took off VFR cross country from KOXV (Knoxville, Ia) to KLAL (Lakeland, Fl) in the Cessna and had a great flight until the last half hour.  I planned it out, and figured just to be safe, I would land when my fuel was half gone and refuel.  My first re-fueling was in Paducah, Ky, where I spent the night.  I took off the next morning (I didn't really wait, I just reset the time...) and settled in for a nice long flight.  

Then somewhere south of Cedar Key, Fl (where Florida starts to curve south along the Gulf) I noticed the fuel light was on.  Ok, I thought, I'll just land in Crystal River, refuel and be on my way.  But Crystal River is only about 75 miles north of Lakeland, and I still had about 15% fuel left, so I decided to push it.

This was not exactly the smartest thing I could have done.  As I flew south, I noticed clouds building up ahead and sure enough, I soon found myself in the midst of a thunderstorm.  I couldn't fly above it, my fuel situation was by now such that it was a risk to fly around it, but I still felt I could reach the airport fine.

So by the time I got to Lakeland, I was down to 3% fuel, fogged in and couldn't see the airport, and was praying for a break from the FS gods when I took this:



You can't tell it, but it's still raining.


Probably one of my most intense FS moments ever, right up there with dead-sticking the Real Air Spit in up in Alaska because of a blown engine;  and yes I will admit it was because of my stupidity...

Everyone makes mistakes.

Did you make it?

I've flown into CDK before (virtually) .  Very nice place to fly.

Hope you made it.

On one of my first flights for my VA, I rammed a BAC 1-11 into the ground shortly before the runway.
Reason: Miscalculation of fuel. I wanted to save money and underestimated the gas guzzling rate of the jet.

Didn't do the reputation of my airline any good and I'm still struggling to get it up to the default value of 100.

When you got fuel.. you didn't top it off, did you ?  Linemen will give you a funny look (plus you don't want it on record anywhere, that you put 52 gallons of fuel into a plane that holds 53  

No, I had planned to stop in Huntsville or Atlanta for fuel, but I forgot...

On one of my first flights for my VA, I rammed a BAC 1-11 into the ground shortly before the runway.
Reason: Miscalculation of fuel. I wanted to save money and underestimated the gas guzzling rate of the jet.

Didn't do the reputation of my airline any good and I'm still struggling to get it up to the default value of 100.

So...which flynet VA do you fly for??

.mic

[quote]No, I had planned to stop in Huntsville or Atlanta for fuel, but I forgot...

So...which flynet VA do you fly for??

Not telling...


But here's a hint: My home base is EDDV and my fleet is a CRJ-700 and an A748.

[quote]When you got fuel.. you didn't top it off, did you ?

this may be silly, but why not?

Because that would mean that you had flown well into your required fuel reserve (30 minutes for Day VFR, 45 minutes for night and IFR).

And in THIS case.. you wouldn't even have had enough for a go-around.

ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....well that makes sense....

Well ... isn't Flight Simulator 'as real as it gets' then? :-/

The scary part is that I can see that happening in real life....

The scary part is that I can see that happening in real life

I've been "concerned" about fuel three times in nearly 1100 hours of flying. Most recently, on that trip around Lake Michigan, because the friends that met us in Sturgeon Bay, wanted us