Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 600; Flight Crew Type 550
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue
Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Procedure; Human Factors
It was a normal training flight. We had planned to practice Simulated Emergencies and basic maneuvers. Like always; since we have reduced fuel we estimated how much fuel we would need. We calculated roughly 7 gallons were all we were going to need for our 1.5 hr flight today. The weather was clear. Winds were 200 at 10 knots. Fairly calm.Upon arrival to the airplane; we began the preflight. Everything checked out to be ok; except for the right tank. The right tank had some water contaminate in the fuel. We had to sump the tank 3 times to get the water out and to be able to verify that the fuel was clean. Once we verified that the fuel was clean; we manually dipped the tanks to find that we had a total of 17 gallons. 9 gallons in the left tank and 8 gallons in the right tank. Seeing that we had 7 gallons we knew that that should give us roughly 2.5 hrs of flight allowing us to meet VFR fuel requirements of a reserve and then some. From there we started the plane up; with no issues. The run up was text book perfect. We had no issues with flying the plane.We departed from ZZZ and made a slow climb; avoiding Bravo airspace; up to 6;000 feet MSL. We started our maneuvers like Steep Turns and Slow flight. We were in slow flight with reduced power for roughly 30 minutes. We then practiced a Simulated Emergency Engine Failure; which allowed us to get to an altitude appropriate for Ground Reference maneuvers. From there flew over to ZZZ1 for 1 touch'n'go and 1 go-around. We then departed the area to the north back to ZZZ.Once we were above the VFR Waypoint at 4;000 feet; we called to Tower and received clearance to enter Right Traffic 17R and to Report Mid-Field Downwind. Shortly after reporting back the call we felt the engine start to sputter. In attempt to give the airplane as much possible power; we gave the airplane a full rich mixture; fuel pump on; and full throttle. We noticed no change in power; so we started to prepare ourselves for a forced landing. I considered turning and trying to glide towards ZZZ since we were so close; but being only 1;500 feet off of the ground the math didn't add up. We wouldn't have made it to ZZZ. Fortunately; my student has a couple of thousands of hours in helicopters; so he took the radios; and I flew the plane. We executed good Crew Resource Management. He helped me by pointing out obstacles to avoid on our way down. I had made my 180 degrees turn to face into the southerly wind and when landing on the [highway] was assured I nosed down to allow myself to have some extra speed to bleed off during the landing flare. I tried to stay 15-20 feet off the ground while bleeding the speed to allow car traffic to see me. As we slowed down; I slowly bumped in flaps helping keep us aloft. Traffic cleared and we had plenty of space to touch down. We did not hit anything. The touch-down was very soft. There were no injuries to [the student] nor I. There was no damage to the airplane itself.
C150 instructor pilot reported a loss of engine power and off field landing due to fuel starvation.