By An Aviation Safety Magazine Staff Report

Many pilots think running out of fuel is in the same category of a gear-up landing: It can never happen to them, until it does. While there may be several good reasons for landing with the gear still stowed, we can think of only two for running out of fuel. One of them involves fuel starvation—there’s fuel aboard, but it can’t get to the engine. In our view, the only time this excuse holds water is when it involves some kind of mechanical event—the fuel selector breaks off in the pilot’s hand between detents, for example, or a transfer pump fails. The only other legitimate excuse for running out of…