Any flight where you don't end up on Juan's channel is a success.

Hi from Belgium! Personaly , on a SR20, I use my old analog watch as a visual reminder: whenever the minutes hand is in the left half of the watch, I use the left tank. When the minutes hand crosses into the right half, I switch to the right tank. Easy.

Totalizer worked perfectly. The plane was totalized.

I read all the comments and a lot of them question why he pulled the chute. Look at the result, dead stick mid-flight, 3 souls on board, 3 people exit aircraft uninjured. That is ALL that matters. There are quite a few dead Cirrus pilots who never pulled the handle. There are even a much larger number of pilots who were killed (in all airplanes) during a forced landing due to fuel starvation. This pilot did a lot wrong, but pulling the chute was not one of them and kudos to him for doing so.

Former Cirrus driver here. Fuel management in a Cirrus is very important. It’s easy to get complacent on a x-country and forget to switch tanks and get out of balance. I always did careful planning and fuel management to stay out of trouble. If you run one tank dry you are probably significantly out of balance.

Juan, Thanks for your commentary. I'm a Cirrus SR22TN owner with upgraded fuel gauges from CiES. The transducers in the tank are digital encoders vs. the traditional analog potentiometers. The process of calibrating these transducers is long and tedious taking the better part of a day because you calibrate them 1 gallon at a time from empty to full. When that gauge says you have a gallon in the tank you have a gallon in the tank. The gauges readout to 0.1gal. All of the newer SR22s have the CiES transducers. Having said that, the only time my Cirrus has ever had only a gallon in the tank was when it was on jacks, leveled and drained. I never fly with less than 10 on a side. The Cirrus is by far the most automated aircraft I've ever flown and like you, I have over 3000hrs in trainers and fighters in the Air Force. None of them hold a candle to the Cirrus for navigational and systems situational awareness. I miss not having an air to air radar and sidewinders, but that's another story. The detail provided by the displays is unprecedented in GA and fuel management clues are no exception. The FMS will tell you how much fuel you have over every waypoint and it will especially tell you that you don't have enough to make your destination. This is displayed from takeoff to, as in this case, pulling CAPS. With the CiES transducers I've never seen more than 1 gallon difference. The Cirrus burns about 1 gallon every 5 minutes in cruise so that's accuracy I've never seen in any other aircraft. In this mishap a gallon would have gotten him to the numbers. I'm not going to second guess this pilot. Pulling CAPS was the right thing to do. I just wanted to inform your subscribers that the Cirrus and I'm sure all newer GA ships really do take advantage of proper fuel level sensors, gauges and computational assistance in keeping the pilot aware of fuel, weather, traffic, terrain and engine condition.

I am a Cirrus SR22 owner/pilot. I actually had a fuel leak last month that I only became aware of after I changed the oil and was leak checking the oil filter. The engine was running fine and I am not sure how long it was leaking for. There was no blue on the belly or fuel smell. Between that and watching this video I have come to the conclusion that I depend a little too much on the fuel computer in my Avidyne glass panel. To answer your question, I take off on the fullest tank. If I am full fuel I take off on whichever tank is already set. I have the Avidyne IFD 540/440 and they alert me every 30 minutes to switch tanks. When switching I always look at the mechanical gauges for proper fuel balance. I am ultra conservative on fuel levels, I have never landed with less than 1 hr reserve, and I live in Florida where there is an airport on every corner to get fuel if needed. I am linking on a video of the fuel leak that I sent to my mechanic when I discovered the fuel leak. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pOBhl5qJ2dnLnGQ.html

Cirrus pilot here! Caps Cutting There is nothing in the checklists for cutting the lines to the parachute on behalf of the pilot. However, in the Cirrus first responders documentation there are instructions on how to cut the parachute and which type of tools are required. The pilots job during a CAPS deployment is to make sure the engine is off, fuel lines are shutoff, electrical systems are off, and ELT is activated. Upon landing, evacuate and distance yourself opposite of wind direction (most likely so that if the plane is dragged on you don't get squished). One reason why cutting the parachute is not included in a checklist is because of the risk that the plane may catch fire due to the substantial amount of fuel that is likely to leak post-deployment. The stress from landing sends a nice shock into the wing/fuel area usually causing some sort of damage to it. Fuel Management The Cirrus has two fuel gauges as you mentioned. Typically every 30min or 1 hour you crosscheck your totalizer with your fuel gauges to make sure that the difference is close (level flight). if not, then you must suspect a sensor has failed or you have a fuel leak. I'd pick fuel leak every time if I know my fuel gauges have been accurate recently and if I shake the wings without getting a change in fuel guage reading. I change fuel every 30 minutes, reminder set in avionics. I have six columns on my ipad scratchpad: Time, Tank Switching From, Totalizer Fuel Remaining, Fuel Gauge L, Fuel Gauge R, Fuel Flow First Responder Slideshow Cirrus CAPS firstresponder.cirrusaircraft.com/2013-11-04Cirrus1stResponderInfoSlides.pdf

One time I had to take 5 gallons of gas to my boss that ran out of fuel in his Porsche. I told him "E does not stand for enough!!!" Needless to say he did not see the humor in it.

We had a off airport landing here in Michigan last year due to fuel exhaustion in a 172. The fuel cap was left loose or off, and fuel siphoned out of both tanks. The pilot was depending on the engine fuel totalizer and didn’t notice that the tanks were emptying. Both the pilot and passenger survived a night landing in a farm field.

6:47 is an excellent summary, although I quit running a tank dry after a difficult restart one time. My primary flight instructor used to drill into me "If you're not doing something, you're doing something wrong." That was in the '80s. Still true today, modern avionics notwithstanding.

Went for a color tour flight today for our anniversary. All I kept thinking was "man I hope we don't end up on Juan's channel!"

Not saying it's the cause of this situation, but technology is not a sustitute for skill.

Excellent report Juan, and good point about fuel leaks. Reminds me of a flight from Seattle to Narita as a passenger on a brand new MD11 decades ago that experienced a severe fuel leak on the #2 engine that apparently was not picked up by the totalizer, and was and that was not realized until we did not have enough fuel to make it to Tokyo or back to ANC. The captain talked to Soviet Air Command and tried to land without permission at Burevestnik Airbase, but on a high downwind we were shepherded off by an armed and close formation by a MIG-29. We were instructed on ditching procedures and told to expect to ditch near the as close as possible to the Hokkaido coast. As it was during Desert Storm and the flight was nearly empty I moved to an over-wing emergency exit, put on a life vest and looking at the rough seas I pulled a second vest and considered how I might use it for extra flotation as I noticed a Japanese F-15 and chase the MIG off and followed in close formation. Luckily we just made it into the Joint use airbase in Sapporo and ran out of fuel on the #1 engine as we turned off the runway. I recall the Airport crew had 50gal drums cut in half and made into hand wagons with wheels to catch the leaking fuel from under the #2 engine. As I recall the MD-11 did not have a FE, and to this day I wondered if the Captain, a former Norwegian SAS Captain flying the Thai International was doing fuel cals, or just going by the totalizator until the problem became dangerously obvious.

Juan, as usual, great reporting! I continue to be impressed by how fast you pull this information together, not just for the Cirrus but for all the other aircraft (I commented on the Pilatus too). You just bring a whole lot of credibility to the story. I really enjoy your work. Thank you! I will have to stop by to let you fly the Cirrus ;-). I am a G5 SR22T owner and a CFI (not a CSIP) located in Hayward. I have grown up flying most Cessnas and Pipers, as such I have learned to not trust fuel gauges. I am fundamentally programmed not to trust and I constantly verify. Maybe the new generation of pilots are more trusting of electronics which indeed have become much more reliable. (remember the flakey transponders, maybe not?) I use all data/information and cross check, noting starting fuel, FF, and time (preflight planning is critical here too, plus optional scenarios). Even in my modern SR22T, I have experienced of one of the fuel sensors sticking (I think), showing a +15 gal imbalance (30 minutes earlier was balanced, then 30 minutes later moved back to normal) which doesn't create a lot of trust. BTW I do program Garmin timer to flip fuel every 30 minutes as well as check OX levels. (CSIPs do make this recommendation) I recently flew (to and from) Alaska returning nonstop from Bellingham WA to Hayward (~675nm). Having a similar issue of unusually strong (southerly) winds (as I had to stay relatively high (13,000) above all the smoke). I ended up having to stop in Vacaville for fuel as I couldn't land at Hayward with a comfortable fuel reserve. There are so many great airports this pilot passed up with convenient and cheap fuel! Sad. A few comments per your questions. The Garmin-Cirrus Perspective System provides an amber 'low fuel' alert message (with a double chime) displaying a solid yellow highlighted 'triangle' pointer showing the remaining fuel in that tank or both. So far I have not seen a 'white' (or a 'red') version of that Alert. The system also displays a 'fuel imbalance' amber (and red) alert message (no chime). Cirrus does not train pilots/owners to cut the parachute. I guess most of us would just be happy to be on the ground alive. Not sure of the altitude of this flight but suffice it to say, the SR22T is not a very good glider, (per the POH) from 10,000 ft, the SR22T can glide 14 nm assuming best glide speed. A fully loaded SR22T (G5+) has a useful load of around 1080 lbs. It is possible the pilot traded fuel for the weight of the passengers and baggage ... I guess we will find out. Regardless a real bummer.

Great to see Jason from The Finer Points as a guest. Back when podcasts were relatively new, TFP was one of the first ones I followed. Pilots with the gift of instruction are much rarer than pilots who manage to procure an Instructor Certificate. Good to see two of the former on here!

Good advice. Most common form of engine failure is fuel starvation. Fuel management, Flight planning and land somewhere and buy some gas and grab a coffee and sandwich. Dont be scared or embarrassed to do so. More fuel than less is always better, don't skimp. When I got my Airline Command I had a meeting with the training manager and the first thing he said to me after congratulations was "don't skimp on fuel".As Juan knows every airplane you still have to regularly check fuel used versus remaining, fuel leaks are your worst enemy , the gages wont tell you anything ( you need to do the maths) even in the big jets. 👍

Great to see Jason add his thoughts. Juan - thanks for all you do for the aviation community.

Awesome video, avid, passionate fly guy here, also USAF as a young man, went for my ticket years ago, but had my son, so here I am much later in my life and I only go up in the Cirrus SR22, only way I could get my wife now to let me go up once a year, bcuz of the emergency parachute, its my treat to myself, love flying, love the cockpit, the controls, the cockpit room. Sadly flying is just so expensive with the maintenance, upkeep, etc. worst than when we had our ocean boat. Man love your content, thanks for sharing and reminding the ppl of KISS, old school ways never fail us. 🤙🏻

I fly with a group of cirrus owners. I am not aware of any of them who do not carefully watch the fuel gages. I check mine regularly. There are four ways I know their accuracy: 1. The fuel gages, 2. The totalizer 3. The fuel dispensing pump 4. A paint stick marked in gallons.

I am not a pilot, so I can't speak from a pilots perspective. I have been driving various land vehicles and watercraft since I was 9 or 10. Checking fuel levels, and other fluids before, while and after I stopped was drummed into me by my Dad. In over 50 years of operating on water and land I have never run out of fuel. I have a very nice trip system in my car. It tells me mpg, distance and range. I still look at the gauge, it is part of my routine scan of the instrument panel while driving. It is critical just driving down the road. Once on vacation, in a new van, I noticed a fluctuation in the temperature gauge. Pulled of the road into a truck stop. I checked my fluid levels. Coolant was pretty low by my standards. I inspected under the vehicle for fluid leaks. None were found. I figured my shiny new van had a leak in the head gasket leading to the combustion chamber. Refilled the radiator and overflow reservoir and continued home and reduced speed and frequent stops to top off and check the levels. Went to the dealer and then fought the battle of warranties. Eventually lemon law right declared and vehicle replaced. All without an attorney. 😎

Something else to take into account. There is the psychological aspect of feeling happier to push the limits in a Cirrus because you potentially have an "out". The parachute.

Really liked the Cirrus instructor's humility and attitude. Would feel very comfortable taking lessons from him.

Sticking around for the post script was worth it. It's sounding like this could be an excellent learning experience, that didn't involve any fatalities.

Glad to hear they all walked away. Thank Juan.

My personal rule: land with an hour's worth of fuel in the tanks.

Just excelente the final interview with the instructor! No doubt that the cirrus community members who had the opportunity to saw this video will never forget the lesson. Great job, Juan!

I'm not a pilot or an aviator of any kind but I'm fascinated by the complexity of flight and of aviation in general.

There is no guidance in the AFM or the Cirrus emergency responder's guide w.r.t. cutting away the parachute. The only instructions in the AFM are to get away from the aircraft and remain upwind to avoid any chance of having the plane dragged into you. In the responder's guide, the advice is to deflate the parachute using a fire hose, then park a heavy vehicle on it. Since the airplane came down in a rice paddy, that would be impractical. The main parachute straps are Kevlar, so cutting them would definitely not be easy. It might be possible to cut the risers. Or, if the parachute was not inflated right after the accident, it's possible that it could have been gathered up and rolled up to prevent it from inflating, but there is no guidance for this in any documentation I can find.

No injuries, GREAT ! The airplane however..... what shame. Thank you Mr. Brown for a fine report.

Looking at the autonomy data of a Cirrus SR22 it follows that it has an autonomy of about 1050 nmi assuming to travel at a cruising speed equal to 183 Knots equal to about (183 / 60s) 3.05 Miles covered in 1 minute. It is concluded that with full tanks (without exceeding the MTOW value) the autonomy of this aircraft is approximately 5-5.5 hours. Now it would be necessary to see if in addition to the three people there was also a baggage and possibly knowing its weight all this could have led the pilot to decide to embark less fuel in order not to exceed the MTOW and also to keep the Center of Gravity (CG) within the correct limits. . The distance from KBUR airport to Yuba city 052 airport is about 330-340Nm which if traveled at a speed of 183 knots it takes about 2 hours of travel, considering the unfavorable winds (probably above 35-50 contrary knots) I would have loaded fuel for at least one ETA estimated time of 3 hours 3 and a half hours if not even 4 hours, if this was not possible due to the weight I would have made an intermediate stage. The pilot should have realized that he would not have enough fuel to reach his destination and should have alerted the controllers with a PAN PAN PAN emergency and requested an immediate landing at the nearest airport. For me it was a human error.

After a crash landing the last thing they were thinking of was cutting away the parachute. Happy everyone was able to walk away. Great video Captain very informative.

If they couldn't cut the 'chute, they could have stuffed it into the cabin.

CAPS - Cirrus Automatic Petroleum Service. If not reached on the first try, the parachute will attempt to reposition the aircraft overnight. V 2.0 will also include a seat shaker, to alert the PIC to look at the fully automatic system before absolute 0 remaining is reached. Note; your mileage may vary with these systems. Things that make you go 'hummm'....

Beyond the 45 and 30 min ifr/vfr rules, just plan to always land with one hour reserve. And go by the LOWEST fuel based on gauges or fuel totalizer or flight time x galllons per hour.

Awesome to see The Finer Points and Juan on the same video together. That's a LOT of experience and knowledge on display.

good to know that the pilot is going to survive the crash he's going to have later this week

You and Jason started to hit on it. The Fuel Totalizer is manual. You enter the fuel in the aircraft manually - it’s not related to the floats/gauges just beneath the power lever. So if you said it has 86 gallons (less than full) and you misread and it has 82 gallons, then your fuel used is going to count down/show usage from 86 and your FOD (fuel over destination) will be erroneous. You have to double check pre-flight fuel, fuel added, fuel based on gauges and THEN enter into the totalizer, even then you can be off by 1-2 gallons. The Tabs are 30 a side, Full is 46 a side. This pilot just didn’t do it properly and his mistake is a wrecked SR22 and insurance increases for the rest of us. The potential 1-2 gals shouldn’t matter if your planning 45 mins (IFR) or 30 mins (VFR). I said 1-2 gals it’s because you’re reading fuel gauges that use general numbers (e.g., 40 and 10 then big/little lines in between), so you’re estimating them, not reading exact numbers.

You can create multiple timers on the system. I set it for 20 minutes which corresponds to about 5 gallons at cruise. I balance the tanks after leveling off since the burn rate is higher climbing. I then reset the timer when the tanks are even. I switch to the fuller tank on descent and the tanks are about even after landing.

Hi Juan, I very much enjoy your channel. I fly a SR-20 and do several things to manage fuel. I have a reminder set for every 30 min. for tank change, I plan 10gal/hr with 2 hour reserve at destination if the avionics show less then that I stop for gas’s. Also fuel gage is above selector so you look at it each time you switch tanks. Great work thanks

My dad was out flying when this happened, the controller contacted him to see if he could spot them, he watched them touchdown and shortly after the plane was flipped then dragged across the field. Really unfortunate considering that there is 3 duster strips nearby and one is paved.

I remember the guy who tried to fly from Phoenix, Arizona to Napa, Ca. It was super bowl day and he didn’t want to miss any of the game. He made it to 1000 feet short of one eight right.

Great job Juan, and thanks for bringing Jason from TFP in for his knowledge. As we work together, we can greatly improve GA safety!

I definitely use old school fuel management procedures in the Piper Tomahawk I picked up. In 1991 when I got my PPL and transitioned to Piper Archer, etc... That is how I was taught. Make a grid on paper, put L/R tank and from start to shutdown at destination you right down your times. I always keep a good reserve on each tank and you also have to be mindful of Useable fuel compared to Non-useable fuel per POH. I also use a stopwatch and mark the actual time down. Never flown a Cirrus.

When I was flying my Cessna 172, people would express an interest in becoming a pilot. I would ask “have you ever run out of has in your car?” If the answer was yes, I would say that flying was probably not for them. Let’s hear it for high wing aircraft. . . Fuel on both, fly straight

My first instructor pulled my engine on me every flight. After a dozen times he said there isn't anywhere you cant find a spot to land this bird and he stopped pulling the engine but I never stopped looking for a good place to land.

not a cirrus pilot, but this is why i fly one tank at a time. My M20C is old enough not to have a "fuel imbalance" limitation, and the manual recommends flying one tank completely dry, switching to the other, and noting the time - your time remaining is then however long it took for the first tank to go dry. As long as you do enough of a preflight to *know* that your tanks are not leaking between the fill cap and the fuel selector, this method will give you an accurate "50% endurance remaining" time, regardless of how fast the leak between fuel selector and engine is. harder to do on birds with a "max fuel imbalance" limit, though.

I’m still in training and I fly the SR20 it’s pretty much the same cockpit layout to the bigger sister of the SR22. I start with the fullest tank first if I don’t start with a full tanks. If I have a full tanks then I will use the left up until take off. And no POH don’t tell you to cut the parachute after landing.

I fly a 2005 SR22 with analog fuel gauges driven by float senders in the tanks. The aircraft has a totalizer on the Avidyne MFD. The totalizer and the fuel gauges appear to be quite accurate and both reflect the same amount of fuel during flight. I am constantly cross checking the gauges to the totalizer, and switching tanks every five gallons or so. I have my Garmin 430s set up to warn me to check fuel every 15 minutes. The aircraft has a low fuel indicator light that turns on when either tank gets below 10 gallons. On a long (4.5 hour) flight I expect to be less than an hour from my destination before that light turns on.

"it says here on your resume that you almost flew to Yuba City" "the only way to really check the accuracy of the gauge is to go 'til it stops" Here is 7/8 of the inflight meal, we only have 7/8 of the required fuel to arrive anyway "....and then we will parachute in and hike rest of the way" "rice paddy to ditch with no one on board- how do i mark that down in my logbook?" "and for $275,000 it comes with a jerry can strapped to the spar" "yes mister tow truck operator, its the one with the orange and white parachute in the air, you cant miss it!" apparently the Yuba City airport valet wears tall rubber boots just having fun!!! Love what you do on this channel

I flew a 2006 Cirrus SR 22 for many years. The totalizer was very accurate but requires an accurate starting point. When not filling to tabs, or a topoff, it is possible to give the totalizer the wrong numbers to work with. With 3 adults on board it’s probable they took off with partial fuel. The primary fuel gauges were garbage in those days and a source great frustration.

Great discussion and great postscript discussion, too! In addition to the possibility of a leak (or a missing filler cap, which in some planes can have the same effect), what about this: Pilot has adequate reserve, but he's a little close. He plans on switching tanks the last time when the fuel flow 'flickers', so he'll have max available fuel in the other tank. But instead of stuttering, the engine stops. He's low enough that instead of attempting a restart of the engine, he punches out. Or, attempts a restart, but can't get it restarted before he's too close to the operating range of the recovery chute. I bring up this possibility because I know pilots are training on having 30 minutes reserve past expected flight time for day VFR, but I've never heard of an instructor talking about the leftover fuel you're going to have in one tank after the last switch. Having 30 minutes reserve split between two tanks kinda sucks...or running out because you miscalculated switch times the same. Some pilots will intentionally run a tank dry to avoid that, but I'm too chicken to do that, so I plan on 30 minutes left in one tank. Finally, this is a reminder to CHECK THE WEATHER! Murphy says headwinds are stronger than predicted, until you turn around to go back home, then it dies to nothing.

I think the most important question that unfortunately doesn't get asked enough is "What if?" What if the gauge is faulty? What if GPS goes down? Every flight should be treated as a training flight. Fly dead reckoning with GPS as a backup. Fly a manual fuel management system with the computers as a backup. At best it makes for a mentally challenging flying experience at worst it could save you life.

"- I know my plane, it'll make it home"

Flying is thinking. Too much reliance on cockpit automation has once again proves that it not a perfect system and pilots must stay engaged. You asked all the right questions to lead us there; the voice of reason!

I haul fuel for a living and it would be so embarrassing for a tanker driver to run out of the product in the truck that is in the tank. That being said, I never take that kind of chance. If you have to stop 50 miles short of your destination and add 20 gallons, that sure saves a lot of heartache and paperwork. That was an expensive lesson that this person learned that was so easy to avoid. I am extremely thankful that all people involved are ok, and that is the most important thing in this whole scenario.

Three Rules of Aviation: 1) Don't run out of fuel. 2) Don't fly in weather you or the aircraft are not qualified to be in. 3) Don't fly unairworthy aircraft. These three are the top killers and accident drivers in GA year after year, decade after decade. Be smart and fly safe.

I remember reading an article a number of years ago that was, to the effect, Cirrus pilots tend to be a little more bold then their fuel and weather allow because they have a parachute. In other words, the safety factor of the chute makes them a little more brave than they probably should be. I'm not a pilot, never flown more than a paper airplane. . .just remember reading the article in a doctors waiting room or someplace similar.

In a cross country training flight in 2013 SR22T we had a high pressure fuel leak. Essentially there was no apparent leak on the ground, but once underway we were flying at 11,000 feet and I noticed an engine sputter and then the nearly stopped before my CFI took over and immediately looked at the gauge in the center console and flipped to the other tank. We had been underway for about 15 minutes and had plenty of fuel. We then made a plan to divert to another airport and picked up fuel. At that point the leak still wasn’t detected. We assumed that we somehow made a mistake on the totalizer and didn’t switch tanks, but we both were certain that we did. We fueled up, made it back to our home airport. Three days later the CFI told me that the plain did have a leak and told me that I got some real life experience with a fuel management problem and an engine problem. In my training we talked quite a bit about the fuel management and using both the totalizer and the gauges, but most of the CFI’s I’ve flown with lean heavily on the totalizer. I can see where you could misjudge your fuel with some strong headwinds, but this pilot should have been watching the gauges while seeing he was in a stiff headwind, which the Garmin display would have clearly indicated. Landing at another strip seems like a much better alternative, plus It doesn’t seem like he had enough fuel to begin with. I’m sure he and the passengers were so frazzled by the ditch that they didn’t even think about the chute staying attached to the plane. Good thing to remember. No reason to cause more problems when you just survived a crash landing. Good video.

I recently flew my Mooney 231 5.9 hours westbound from Perry GA (PXE) to Ponca City OK (PNC) - significant headwinds the whole way. I completely topped off the tanks, max fill, before takeoff and after landing. The PNC fuel pump is old - creaking old rotating analog numbers. What I learned -- the JPI EDM 900 calculated 64.7 gals used, and the pump on the ground pumped 64.9, leaving me with 10.3 gals remaining. Meanwhile, the EDM 900 fuel levels (reading from the tank floats) left me thinking I had less fuel, perhaps 6-7 gals remaining (causing anxiety). The fuel totalizer is more accurate and reliable than reading the digital fuel level readout from the tank floats. Any time I get to 10 gals remaining, I'm landing to refuel.

We had one land on our ranch in Dixon, CA. about three years ago. I believe it was also Fuel management.

Another fine quality video. Thank you Juan for keeping it real ....

Always do what my Dad (25 yrs SAC) said: Never push the limits if you don’t have to.

First thing I heard in my cirrus training: pull the chute, call your insurance company, make em do their job. You are 100% correct that the pilot would not be aware of a leak other than by monitoring the analog gauges. They are no better than any other gauge based on a mechanical float, but mine always worked fairly well. Fuel quantity alerting always worked in mine. I would say that once I discovered how accurate the fuel flow gauge was, I stopped keeping time-on-tank charts and monitored the analog gauges as a backup. I used a timer in the garmin and switched at 30 minutes

Great job as always Juan. I teach in Cirrus and it is a straight forward fuel system common with many other aircraft. The G-1000 has a alert system that if one tank is 10 Gal out of balance it displays a msg and caution in the annunciator. Having head winds should have been figured on pre flight wx check, and trip time and fuel required calculated. With reserves. In the event conditions change the CAPTAIN makes the decision to divert for fuel. This is standard stuff. Some Cirrus owners get the training but the judgement is acquired. As a flight instructor I put my heart and soul ln teaching this critical factor of planning because too often we are seeing fuel miss management!!!!

This one made a little hanger talk among us pilots. Its easy to blame the “rich guy- push

As a 2x Cirrus owner, I have a G1000 reminder set, but I also like to keep myself occupied on long flights to see how close I can keep both tanks. :-)

Who was the pilot. Moe , Larry , or Curly

Weren’t you logging the fuel flow? No, I thought you were. Damn.

Ok, let's make this really simple. IT'S A PARACHUTE! Didn't you toss G.I. Joe with a chute as a lad? Cut that chute free after you land. Ask any Airborne soldier or a sport parachutist. Leave the chute connected...overnight! Come on, man.

It seems that fuel management was the cause of your two recent postings. When I went through the Army flight school back in 1975 - 76, we were told it was a "Cardinal Sin" to run out fuel. It appears that the pilots of these two aircraft did a very poor job of flight planning and failed to do a fuel consumption check during their flights. After taking off we do a "level off check" which included initiated a fuel consumption check. This check was particularly important when doing IFR flight and cross country VFR flights. Before flying we were also required to get a weather briefing. Part of the weather briefing included information about the winds. If flying against the winds, especially if they were strong, we would be made aware that there was a possibility we would need to make a refueling stop along the way. While flying in Germany there were times that the top of the mountains were obscured which meant flying along the rivers and valleys instead of more direct routes. Again the amount of fuel being consumed became an important factor.

The totalizer is absolutely accurate in a Cirrus. I start on the fullest tank or either tank when full. My notification is set on 30 minutes then I switch tanks but alway monitoring gauges and totalizer. It’s not a car so if you see you are not going to make it to the destination with fuel to Spare why take the chance It’s called preparedness and don’t take chances

Pilot still needs to do the pilot thing called THINK, fancy equipment is no replacement for thinking. Like Reagan said trust but verify, I fly several planes with these totalizer but I still fly by time, record each change. If winds are not as forecast easy enough to catch, if your thinking. If in doubt blow dust of old mechanical E6B and run the numbers.

My fuel gauge is worn on my wrist and it has a sweep-second-hand.

Name that author: "I walked away from what was 5 minutes ago a perfectly good airplane, feeling rather like an ass."

My fuel flow is conservatively off by 5-7%, I switch tanks every 10 gallons in the Mooney with the error on the safe side. Visual check and top off whenever inconvenient....

Deployment of the chute on windy days scares me. We had a couple killed after a successful chute deployment, in another type, surviving the landing but being killed in the 2 kilometre drag across the rocks. In my book, the circumstances of chute deployment must be carefully considered. If it is windy enough to be risking being dragged along before getting out, then perhaps a low-groundspeed touchdown into wind would be safer. Of course, if you pulled the chute because the aircraft spun and could not recover, then you have to wear the wind. The chute is there in the first place because it was uncertifiable without it due to its stalling and spinning characteristics. Best advertising campaign in aviation history has everyone thinking it is the safest. Inop chute system is a no-go item, for that reason.

How many airports did you fly by, while looking at the gauges in the yellow?

my flight instructor made it simple . Know how many hours of fuel you have and forget the gauges. Big difference between "thought we had enough fuel" and "took a little longer because we had to make a fuel stop"

The common Garmin GNS-430, as ancient as it is, nonetheless has a "Switch Tanks" timer that the owner can program into the unit.

It’s real simple for me. I’m not the most sophisticated pilot so I just run higher personal minimums. If I can’t land with an hour or even 90 minutes of fuel still in the tank, I’m not going direct. If total remaining from the totalizer, or the fuel gauges themselves, start looking low to me, I’m just gonna land halfway and get gas. I like to be relaxed when I fly and plus it’s a chance to see somewhere new, maybe pee and then get some fresh coffee.

Cirrus pilot here, this was an unfortunate accident, don't know enough details to comment directly on this accident, but I am familiar with the Perspective avionics that would have been in this aircraft. For me all fuel management starts outside the airplane with an eyeball on the fuel level. The tanks have tabs which when the fuel is touching, it has 30 gallons in that tank. I rent, so it is real important to me to see at least fuel to tabs in the tanks so I know how much fuel I have. Based on my plan and W and B, I'll generally have either 60 or 92 gallons for most flights. When you fire up the avionics, it goes though a series of screens, the first relevant one is the totalizer amount, where the amount of fuel verified on preflight is confirmed or entered as required. Then as part of the preflight checklist, the gages are checked to confirm they represent what I saw in the tanks. The gages in the perspective system is part of the PFD or the MFD depending on which screens you are looking at. But they are always there. The older models had an analog gage on the armrest console, near the fuel selector, that you had to look down to see. Those are great gages, this airplane most likely didn't have those but rather had the display shown near the beginning of the video. So there are many checks if you follow the checklists to confirm you have enough fuel, plus your preflight calculations. I try to land with at least 20 gallons on board, which at 55% best economy can give almost 2 more hours of flight. The totalizer is very accurate, probably within a tenth of a gallon, the gauges are pretty good too. As far as fuel tank switching, I use the timer in the aircraft avionics which gives an alert to check fuel and oxygen. This works well, I also watch the gages. I was recently flying a new Cirrus where I was asked to run at a higher power setting (85%) and pretty rich as part of the break in. I did get a fuel imbalance alert, which was fixed in a few minutes by changing the tank. No big deal. The totalizer works really well, it gives fuel flows, plus FOD, fuel over destination , based on your current burn and flight plan. It can be a little alarming on initial climb on a long flight, burning almost 30 gallons an hour, you will get a yellow or red indication on the FOD indicating an expected low or negative fuel amount when you arrive if you stay at the present setting. This of course generally isn't a problem when you set cruise power and lean appropriately. The totalizer will give you plenty of advanced notice if you are going to be low on fuel at your destination, this is real time info, and if you are seriously slowed by an unexpected head wind it allows you to take action before it becomes a problem. Either by "making gas" , which is reducing power or going lean of peak if you are not there already, or making a fuel stop. Personally I always check the fuel gages as I am flying, plus the totalizer, constantly, there is no excuse to run out fuel in this airplane if everything is working properly. If fuel was leaking, which I suppose is possible, the fuel gages and fuel gage alert system would give you time to deal with the issue. I suspect that a leak was not the problem here, but anything is possible. The chute should have been disabled after the crash, Cirrus training tells you this. They tell the pilot not to mess with it as there is a lot force there if it is windy. One suggestion is to have first responders drive a vehicle on it. Cutting is also an option, but leaving it on the airplane as happened here is a very bad idea, someone could get killed. The pilot may not have known to have this dealt with if he didn't have Cirrus training which includes videos which Cirrus produces ( and charges for). Good video. Edit: Oh, the only Cirrus to have the altitude compensating pump was the older SR-20s with the continental engines. It was a good system, you still had a mixture lever, but once it was set it was generally good. The 22s never had the compensating pump. If you forget to lean, you are probably burning 25 gph more or less depending on what you set the power to. With 60 gallons in the tank, this probably would give about 2 hours flying time. For a 350 nm flight you probably wouldn't make it.

THAT is the kind of CFI I want to use - one that knows their stuff, but never thinks for a minute that they know everything. We ALL can keep learning, and adapting to the changes in our equipment, procedures, and tools. The most dangerous person operating a car, airplane, or anything else is the one that thinks they know everything.

Had a pilot in a plane behind me fly for about 75 miles. He kept telling the controllers that he had minimum fuel, even while passing multiple airports. We were on final and the controller told us to land quickly and get out of the way. We did and he landed after us, but didn't have enough fuel to even reach the taxiway. Always program your GPS to give a message to switch tanks every 30 minutes.

should be common sense to not leave the parachute. I would have packed it inside

Fuel qty gauges are not part of most MEL. Think about that. You should be using fuel flow and time, and your brain.

Nice reporting Juan... I just love how you let us decide things for ourselves. Wish more of the world worked than way.

I always keep an eye on the fuel totalizer and switch tanks every seven gallons rather than every half hour (or other interval). That eliminates the variables of throttle setting and fuel rate. Seven gallons, by the way, corresponds to a half hour of running at cruise power in my airplane and others using this technique might use a different amount.

Interesting report. Nice to see your guest Jason at the end - seen him a lot over on Steveo's channel Flight Chops.

Pull the chute: EXPENSIVE. Leave the chute attached... VERY VERY VERY EXPENSIVE

Brownie ~ I have @400 hours in the SR22. I was a little confused by what Jason was saying re not ever seeing fuel. The SR22 has physical tabs in sight of the filler hole, so if the fuel touches the tab on each side, you have 60 gallons. I might fuel to tabs for a short flight or pattern work, but normally I top off and you can see the fuel up to the brim. As far as management, I select the fullest tank for takeoff and then have the auto timer set for 15 minutes at which time I switch tanks. I like to keep it tight because otherwise it would be easy to get grater than a 10 gallon fuel imbalance. As you say, garbage in, garbage out, but if you set the starting fuel correctly, the totalizer counts down very accurately. There are two quick pick choices on start, tabs or full, but you can also run up or down a gallon at a time to make adjustments if necessary.

Mr. Brown: You taught a teacher! No hours in his type, and he is certified. I love listening to your explanations. Unfortunately, they aren't making enough like you anymore.

Great cameo with Jason!

The FAA's favorite saying ' pilot error"

Juan - The discussion segment at the end of the video is a technique that would be a great addition to other similar videos when possible. Including the comments of a pilot experienced in the aircraft and the associated training helps make the presentation more than just a technical review of plane and systems, it provides a human element that rounds out the presentation.

Niko from Nikowings, The Ren Baron and Stefan Drury are all popular Cirrus drivers here on KZfaq. I've heard the accident aircraft has had a history of fuel system issues. Would be interested if they had enough fuel when they departed....keyword being HAD.....

Juan, there's a KZfaqr that I follow that has a brandy new Cirrus SR22T, his youtube channel is Niko's Wings. Maybe ask him if you need more info; he seems to be very knowledgable, competent pilot. Good luck.

I have a Cirrus SR 22 T - I have my reminder set for 10 min. Sounds like he was trying to push his luck.

Procedure for cutting the parachute away: Step one; Think about it. Step two; See step one.

Great reporting as always