pooch
Well-known member
Ok, I just read the NTSB report and it does not mention any tank dipping.
I suppose that has to be final. Fair enough.
But I have read on many other reports , this.....
The Bad Interface
John Denver's aircraft had a fuel selection valve with only three positions: Off, Left, and Right. Burt Rutan's design called for that valve to be placed on the front panel of the aircraft, making it easy to switch among the options. The builder of the aircraft, however, elected to place the valve back behind the pilot's left shoulder. He did so with the best of intentions. By placing the valve behind the pilot's compartment, on the other side of the back firewall, with only a long rod leading to the handle behind the pilot's left shoulder, he avoided running the gas lines through the passenger compartment, eliminating any possibility of a gasoline rupture occurring inside the compartment.
He did so, however, at a terrible cost to the human interface, because the only way to switch tanks was to let go of the controls, twist your head to the left to look behind you, reach over your left shoulder with your right hand, find the valve, and turn it. As the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) discovered, it was difficult to do this without bracing yourself with your right foot—by pressing the right rudder pedal all the way to the floor. And that's what killed John Denver. His plane was seen veering to the right and plunging into the ocean from only a few hundred feet up, consistent with the NTSB's reconstruction.
Making things worse
The fuel: Denver had three ways to ensure he had enough fuel. Evidence suggests he made use of two of them:
- He had fuel gauges in the rear of the aircraft, behind the pilot, and a mirror (!) used to look at them. However, the fuel gauges were not linear and had no markings to indicate that apparently half-full was really close to empty.
- He dipped a rod into the fuel tanks while pre-checking the plane before flight to test the fuel level. He may not have been aware, however, that, because of the way the Long-EZ rests, the fuel tends to slosh toward the fuel tank filler port, giving a highly-optimistic reading.
- The third method is adding fuel to the tanks, which Denver failed to do. Because the Long-EZ has very large tanks, the common practice is to add an amount of fuel suffient for the flight, plus a healthy margin. It may be John Denver was told not to fill the tanks, but was not told of this partial-filling practice.
