Situational Awareness; Time Pressure; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem
Human Factors
I failed to switch fuel tanks properly and ran the left fuel tank dry causing the engine to lose power. I informed ATC that I had an [issue] and located [a diversion] airport nearly under me. Over the airport spiraling down I had time to determine that I had run the tank dry and switched to the other tank with over 20 gallons of fuel left and the engine restarted normally. I continued to my destination.I had stared out with full fuel; 90 gallons; switched tanks at .5; 1.5; 2.5 hours after take off. After that time I forgot to do the tank switch at 3.5 hours and the left tank ran dry at 4.0 hours. I lost about 2500 feet before I restarted the engine. I quickly determined I could reach [a diversion] airport with no problems and I was actually trying to lose altitude to set up for a dead stick landing at the airport. I should have set up for best glide and I should have run the emergency checklist earlier to determine the problem. Had I been at a lower altitude the problem would have been more serious.I almost always fly distances of less than an hour so fuel management isn't normally an issue because starting on the tank with the most fuel is sufficient for my trips. This trip was a longer; about 4.3 hours; I was out of practice dealing with fuel management issues until my normal GUMP check approaching the destination runway.
A single engine Cessna pilot reported the loss of engine power due to fuel crossfeed mismanagement. While descending to accomplish a landing; he successfully reconfigured the fuel system; restarted the engine; and continued on to his destination.