Skylane 182/RG Turbo Skylane/RG
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 10; Flight Crew Total 578; Flight Crew Type 10
Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Diverted
Human Factors; Aircraft
Half way through the trip I switched the fuel selector from 'both' tanks to the 'right' tank as the left side burns off faster than the right. Later; setting up for my descent; I switched the fuel selector back to what I believed was 'both'; retarded the throttle and started my descent. Approximately half way through my descent I went to add power to level off a little; discovered the engine did not respond and I had no power.  I trimmed the plane to 80 mph (IAS) for max glide and started to go through mental checklist-carb heat; fuel; mixture; gauges; prop; throttle; ignition.  No response.  I did this a number of times while checking airspeed and looking for possible landing sites in between.  It became apparent I would not be able to make an airport so I started to look more earnestly for a landing location. There was a county road that was a possible option. The surrounding terrain was extremely rough. As I got closer to the ground I saw that there was no oncoming traffic on the road in the direction I would be landing and what little traffic was coming up the road in the direction of landing would be well behind me and no factor so I elected to land on the road. I landed and coasted the aircraft off the side of the road to make sure I was out of the way of any traffic.The problem arose because I had inadvertently switched the fuel selector from 'right' tank to 'off' instead of 'both' before initiating descent.  Because I throttled back for descent right after switching the selector I did not feel the engine eventually starve and everything felt normal until I went to add power. In retrospect I made the same error several times in a row that should have resolved the problem. Mentally when I moved my hand down each time to check the fuel selector switch in the restart procedure I did not physically touch it and confirm. Instead in the stress of the situation; I moved my hand toward it; looked and saw it in vertical position and mentally saw what I thought I should see because in my mind I had just switched the selector to 'both' a few minutes prior.  It wasn't until I was in the final moments of landing the airplane that I realized my error but was too close to touchdown to take my concentration off the landing and attempt to reposition the selector.Human Performance Considerations:After a 20 year hiatus from flying I recently purchased the 182 I was piloting to get back into flying. I took approximately 10 hours of flight instruction/re-training in the plane prior to getting signed off and taking the plane out on my own. Though fuel management was discussed during the re-training process; there was never any need to switch tanks at anytime as the instruction took place relatively close to the airport.  Though this experience will forever burn into my memory the necessity of visually and physically confirming the location of the fuel selector; I'm incorporating and reinforcing preventative actions to make sure this situation never occurs again.  1) Though I took about an hour to sit in the plane and go through the instrumentation; radio/nav settings and mentally walk through my flight; I did not think about the process of changing tanks during flight and mentally/physically walk myself through it. That will now be a mandatory part of my preflight process. 2) Also to help reinforce the positions of the fuel selector; I plan to put a florescent green dot on the point of the fuel selector and above 'both' and florescent red dot below the 'off' to make settings more visually obvious (if allowable). I will also make sure when I switch tanks or go through any procedure involving the fuel selector that I physically touch and visually confirm the position of the switch as instructed.
Cessna 182 pilot reported landing on a country road due to inadvertently selecting the 'off' position with the fuel selector valve.