24 Sport Aviation April 2012 ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS LIVIERI 024-028_FuelStarvationAPR_alt.indd 24 3/13/12 2:04 PM RUNNING OUT OF FUEL ONLY HAPPENS TO THE OTHER GUY, RIGHT? I USUALLY DON’T WRITE ABOUT experimental aircraft haps to change some of your most basic fl ying habits. because my 45 years of aviation experience have been At least I hope so. almost exclusively with certifi cated, normal-category airplanes. However, I’m making an exception this TONY WHO? month. This column was prompted by the June 16, Anthony J. “Tony” Durizzi’s fl ying career started 2001, crash of an experimental Lancair IV-P (NTSB well before my time. Back in the mid-1960s, when reference LAX01FA212) that claimed the life of vet- I was just earning my private ticket, Tony was fl ying eran pilot Tony Durizzi. big radial-engine transports in Southeast Asia for I didn’t know Tony personally, but I did research Air America, the big airline operated covertly by his accident carefully, and I believe there are some the CIA. Colleagues who shared a cockpit with Tony terribly important lessons to be learned from it—les- agreed that he was an outstanding pilot with superb sons that might just cause you to question some of stick-and-rudder skills. You had to be to survive in BY MIKE BUSCH the most basic things your CFI taught you, and per- Air America. www.eaa.org 25 024-028_FuelStarvationAPR_alt.indd 25 3/13/12 2:06 PM In the early 1970s, Tony went to work wood producer and the other a member of Flagstaff airport. Tony radioed the tower aas a pilot for Japan Airlines (JAL), where Eric Clapton’s band. that he was not going to be able to make the he fl ew for three decades and 30,000 hours Tony had been fl ying the plane around fi eld and made a forced landing in a small (give or take) until his retirement at age 60. the country with the Clapton band member clearing two miles northeast of the airport. Tony had a keen interest in general to help him attain the necessary experience Rescue workers arrived on the scene very aviation. He was an active CFI with single, in it. After dropping off the owner at an East quickly. They found no sign of fuel in either multi, and instrument instructor ratings. Coast gig, Tony fl ew the plane to an avion- tank, and no evidence of any post-crash fi re. After retiring from JAL, Tony and airline ics shop in Charlottesville, Virginia (where it The Lancair’s beefy composite cabin struc- pilot friend Mike Raney built a pressur- remained for four days), to correct problems ture survived the crash remarkably intact, ized Lancair IV-P (serial No. 76), one of the with noise in the radios, autopilot wiring, and but Tony was killed on impact when his most sophisticated, highest-performance kit problems with the fuel quantity indicating head struck the instrument panel. planes in existence. system. The avionics technician troubleshot the fuel quantity indication problems IT JUST DOESN’T ADD UP and determined that the right send- When Tony had lunch with the TATI ing unit was out of calibration and the engineer shortly before the accident fl ight, left sending unit was totally inopera- their conversation included discussion of tive. Replacement of the sending units the speed, fuel capacity, and range of the would require wing removal, so Tony Lancair IV-P, as well as Tony’s leaning elected to defer the work until the habits and fuel burn. Tony told the engineer aircraft was back in California. that N424E, being an early serial-number On June 16, 2001, Tony commenced aircraft, had two 40-gallon integral wing his trip from Virginia to California. He tanks, with 78 gallons usable. Later models refueled the airplane in Little Rock, (including Tony’s own Lancair IV-P) had Arkansas, then fl ew on to Ada, Okla- more fuel capacity: 90 gallons standard, with homa, where he asked the mechanics 110 gallons optional. at Tornado Alley Turbo Inc. (TATI) Tony said that he normally leaned the to take a look at the engine to fi nd out big 350-hp Continental TSIO-550-E engine why the airplane wasn’t getting as to 50°F lean-of-peak in cruise, resulting in much turbo boost at altitudes above a miserly 15 gph fuel burn (as shown on the Tony became very active in the Lancair FL200 as other Lancair IVs. The TATI techs aircraft’s digital fuel fl ow and totalizer sys- builder community and before long gained pulled the engine cowling and found and tem) and a cruise speed up at the fl ight levels a reputation as a top Lancair guru. And fi xed a few minor induction leaks. around 260 KTAS. Allowing for the higher although he did not hold an FAA mechanic While the techs were working on the air- fuel burn and lower speed during takeoff and certifi cate—just a limited repairman cer- plane, Tony went to lunch with a TATI en- climb, this would put the aircraft’s calculat- tifi cate for the aircraft that he built—Tony gineer. When the two returned from lunch, ed no-reserve endurance at about four and a ultimately was appointed by the FAA as N424E was topped off with 24.5 gallons of half hours. a designated airworthiness representative 100LL—almost exactly what accident inves- (DAR), empowered to inspect and sign tigators calculated it should have consumed off on the airworthiness of Lancairs and during the fl ight from Little Rock to Ada. TONY’S FINAL FLIGHT WAS IN other homebuilt aircraft. Many considered It was hot in Ada that day. Not long after A LANCAIR IV-P, BUT NOT THE Tony the most knowledgeable individual the fuel truck drove off , the TATI engineer about the Lancair IV outside of the Lan- noticed fuel coming out of the Lancair’s wing- ONE HE BUILT AND OWNED. cair factory. tip-mounted fuel vents. He was struck by the fact that there was only a slow drip coming It’s 750 nautical miles from Ada to BACKGROUND OF THE CRASH from the left wingtip, but a steady stream Flagstaff . The fl ight encountered 20- to 30- Tony’s fi nal fl ight was in a Lancair IV-P, but coming from the right one—despite the fact knot head winds (as forecast) and arrived not the one he built and owned. The acci- that the aircraft was on a level ramp. The at Flagstaff less than three and a half hours dent airplane, N424E, was an early Lancair engineer remarked about this to Tony, who after takeoff . That means that Tony should IV kit (serial No. 11) originally purchased responded that it was normal for this aircraft. have landed safely with more than an hour’s in 1990. The partially built aircraft changed Shortly thereafter, Tony took off from worth of reserve fuel on board. Obviously, hands a few times and was fi nally completed Ada on an IFR fl ight to Flagstaff , Arizona. he didn’t. But why? by professional “hired gun” A&Ps in 1998. He didn’t make it. That’s exactly the question that the NTSB The aircraft was acquired by two friends in The fl ight was uneventful until the investigators wrestled with. There are really the entertainment business: one a Holly- engine quit during a visual approach to only three possibilities: the aircraft consumed 26 Sport Aviation April 2012 024-028_FuelStarvationAPR_alt.indd 26 3/13/12 2:07 PM a lot more than 15 gph, the tanks held a lot originally held only 72 gallons of fuel, but SO WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? less than 78 gallons usable, or a substantial the problem was fi xed and it now held 80 So far, I’ve reported the facts as I know themm quantity of fuel was somehow lost in-fl ight. gallons (78 usable). That’s presumably the from the NTSB factual report and other Or perhaps some combination of these. fi gure he used to plan the fl ight. reliable sources who were involved in the Post-crash investigation suggests the investigation. In the remainder of this article, INTEGRAL FUEL TANKS correct number may have been 72 gallons. I will go way out on a limb and speculate Like most composite aircraft, the Lancair Examination of the right wing revealed that shamelessly about what I think really hap- uses a “wet wing” integral tank fuel system a critical 1/4 inch hole in the main spar that pened. (Even if my speculation is wrong, the in which a substantial portion of each wing serves to vent the outboard D-section, was fact that it could have happened makes this a is sealed up and used as a fuel tank. The fuel not present in N424E. This means that air useful discussion.) tank area of the wing includes a number of had no way of escaping from the outboard D- Let’s theorize that when N424E was wing ribs. The Lancair carries fuel not only section, and the entrapped air would prevent topped off in Ada, there were only 70 usable behind the main spar, but also in front of fuel from fi lling that section. This would gallons of fuel on board (instead of the 78 it in the so-called “D-section” of the wing account for the 8-gallon loss of fuel capacity. that Tony believed), because there was 8 between the spar and the leading edge.