Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Private
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 38; Flight Crew Total 256; Flight Crew Type 87
Workload; Troubleshooting
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; General Maintenance Action; General Flight Cancelled / Delayed
Aircraft
4 miles south of ZZZ I was preparing for a base entry to the VFR traffic pattern when I lost engine power. I was descending through 1;400 ft. AGL at approximately 140 MPH. I pulled the nose up to slow my descent; selected a farmer's field for a landing and performed the immediate action engine out steps - fuel selector to tank with highest fuel level; mixture to full rich; prop full forward; full throttle; ignition switch to both. The engine was windmilling but not firing. I set up for a 180 turn to final for the hay field at around 900 ft. AGL and unlocked the canopy. I lowered the flaps to full after turning to final and touched down softly at 55 MPH indicated. Very soft touchdown in knee-high grass with a nose high attitude. The airplane came to a stop in around 120 ft.I selected the lower tank (according to the fuel gauges) and the engine started and ran smoothly. (arghhhhh!)My wife got a ride to ZZZ and returned with 5 gallons of 100LL. I contacted ATC and the 1800WXBRIEF folks to let them know we landed safely with no injuries; damage to the airplane or damage to property on the ground. The owner of the field arrived quickly and offered to mow and clear the field for us to depart. He and his father spent the next three hours clearing us a 1;400 ft. by 50 ft. grass strip. I decided to get a good night's sleep before the departure at the recommendation of the ATC supervisor and spent the evening calculating takeoff distances in different configurations and planning for a go-no go point for aborting the takeoff roll.The next morning we performed a thorough inspection of the aircraft and removed the nose wheel fairing at the recommendation of multiple pilots on the Van's Airforce forums. I calculated a 280 ft. ground roll and put a flag at 300 ft. down the strip as an abort decision point; leaving me 1;100 ft. to stop if I needed it. We requested emergency services to be standing by and 5 fire trucks and an ambulance showed up.I performed an extended run up at full power with no abnormalities. The takeoff was done with 15 degrees of flaps and was uneventful with rotation and liftoff just before the flag.Landing at ZZZ was uneventful. After refueling; the right fuel gauge was frozen at just below 1/4 tank. Contributing factors to the forced landing: - trusting the fuel gauge to estimate fuel on board. Although we carefully calibrated the gauges before this year's annual; that didn't save me from a gauge malfunction.- bad emergency procedure. The fuel selector step should be to switch tanks rather than select tank with highest indicated level.
Single Pilot reported an uneventful forced landing caused by faulty fuel gauge.