Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Flight Engineer
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 40; Flight Crew Total 17000; Flight Crew Type 10
Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Flight Deck / Cabin / Aircraft Event Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition
Aircraft; Human Factors
I was providing transition training in an RV-6A to a 95 hour private pilot who had just purchased the aircraft. Today's flight was to be about 2.2 hours long. The prior evening I was with the owner and witnessed him refuel the aircraft with 20 gallons of 100LL. I told the owner that there were already six gallons of fuel aboard - based on our previous flying; our observed fuel burn of 8.2 GPH; and the fact that we started with full tanks and kept very careful track of fuel burned; added; or removed.The next morning I arrived at the airport; watched the owner perform the pre-flight and asked him about our fuel state. He told me the 'gas is fine.'We made an uneventful takeoff; climbed to altitude for a short cross country trip so he could practice descents and perform traffic pattern work. We departed that airport for a second airport using the same training profile and they headed back home. Approximately 16 miles from the airport at 2.1 hours into the planned mission; the engine coughed so the owner correctly reacted and switched fuel tanks using the proper procedures. I remarked to him that the event was strange because according to my watch we should have a little over 8 gallons of fuel remaining. At this point the owner goes 'Oh.' I asked Oh what? He tells me 'I probably should have told you before; but early this morning before you got to the airport I drained 8 gallons of gas out of the airplane into my gas cans.' The owner told me he was concerned we may be too heavy as he was worried we had too much gas on the airplane. He had no rational basis for this belief and no explanation as to why he did not tell me his concern or the fact that he removed fuel from the airplane and did not tell me. Concerned that we could experience fuel exhaustion; I opted to make a precautionary landing in a field about 12 miles northwest of the airport. The landing was uneventful. The owner refueled the airplane with the 8 gallons he had removed and with the permission of the land owner; I flew the aircraft out of the clover field back to the airport.
After it was necessary to switch tanks earlier than anticipated; an instructor pilot providing transition training to the new owner of an RV-6A initiated an emergency off airport landing when he was advised by the owner that he had drained eight of the twenty gallons of fuel added the previous evening due to concerns over weight.