The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I just received my latest copy of in the and fly Paper and noticed an article titled "fuel stains eliminated". The article discussed inspecting and replacing the three gaskets on each at the filler neck. This was discussed with respect to stopping the fuel seepage with no mention of any safety issue. I thought I should really a recent experience of mine. Some months ago I got concerned about a significant increase in fuel burn. Long story short, eventually someone suggested I take a little piece of rubber hose and pressurize the fuel tanks by blowing in to the overhead fuel vent and listening for air leaks around filler necks and caps etc. To my surprise I detected a leak around a screw on the left fuel tank filler neck.. The degree of increased fuel burn seemed more then should be accountable from this small leak! Anyway, I sealed the screw hole with some material and reinserted the screw as a test. Surprisingly this seemed to correct my extra fuel burn.. a quick consult with my mechanic resulted in a decision to leave the temporary patch in place untill my next annual in a couple of months.. sadly I took this advice. I did check the screw every fill up and monitored my fuel burn very closely but saw no problems..Untill... on the return leg of a one hour trip from Victoria Whistler with about 20 minutes over open ocean I very nearly suffered few exhaustion and a likely fatal ditch into the ocean. What happened is that I began the return trip of one hour with approximately 2 hours of fuel on board. As I started out over the ocean for the last 20 minutes of the flight I did a routine cockpit check and was startled to find that both fuel guages were showing EMPTY!!.. I immediately contacted flight control and declared a PAN emergency and was luckily diverted into Boundry Bay Airport which was within gliding range.. Thankfully the engine remained running untill I parked but both tanks were below the calculated useable level when dipped..! What had happened is that the screw had worked loose again and began to siphon fuel.. so much so that in less than 40 minutes I had gone through almost two hours of Fuel!!
I was extremely lucky that I had remembered to perform a cockpit check before I headed out over the open water. If I had not I may well not have survived!

So just remember a minor fuel stain may herald the onset of a life threatening situation...

Dr. Dave

Thank you for that story. I am having the same problem and will get it fixed before any x countries.