Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 120; Flight Crew Total 6100; Flight Crew Type 29
Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Inflight Shutdown; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Human Factors; Aircraft; Procedure
We were in a Cherokee 6 (PA 32-300) conducting training flight. This was our second training flight. The first training flight was last month and we flew 1.5 hours Hobbs with 8 landings. This flight lasted 1.3 hours Hobbs with one landing followed by a second takeoff. We were setting up for one final landing. Everything appeared to be going well. We turned final and shortly after as we neared short final; my student reached down and quickly changed the fuel tanks from the right to the left. This was done so quickly that I could not stop him. It was also confusing me; too; since we stressed not to change fuel tanks on final near the ground. I was about to correct this but we were nearing short final and I believed everything would be fine the last 200 FT and I would discuss this once on the ground. We were now very short final and the student remarked that he had no power. At this point on very short final; we were a little high at first; the runway straight in front of us appeared easily reachable. We immediately set up for best glide and continued; not wanting to make anything worse. We continued and did make a safe landing; but it was about 10 FT short of the paved runway. We landed on the main wheels on solid ground covered with grass just before the paved section. We did bounce once and settled back on the main wheels; careful not to hold the nosewheel up as much as possible. The propeller never made contact with the ground. We continued moving straight ahead on the paved surface and went about 400 FT on the runway before the prop stopped rotating. We informed the Tower that we had [our] engine stop and we would try a restart. We successfully restarted the engine and taxied back to parking. We noticed no abnormalities while taxiing back. After shutting the engine down; we carefully looked for any damage to tires or airframe. We observed nothing. We then informed the flight school. There was no accident or injuries.
A PA32 Student Pilot changed the fuel tank transfer at 200' on final before his instructor could comment and the engine quit due to fuel starvation so they landed straight ahead just short of the runway causing no damage.