Had a fuel line pop on a 172 at 3,500 feet over Kansas...

3 comments

3 Comments

Is it really that big of a deal though? A fuel line pop at 3500 feet over flat farmland sounds more like a minor annoyance than a real emergency. You had plenty of altitude to troubleshoot and plenty of fields to land in if it came to that. I mean, a 172 will glide forever and Kansas is basically a giant flat runway. Unless you were about to run out of fuel completely or had no idea where the fuel selector was, this seems like something you just handle and move on. Feels like a lot of drama for a standard engine out procedure.

black.pat1mo ago

Pop a fuel line at 3500 in a 172 near Salina, I just landed straight ahead in a bean field.

black.pat25d ago

Yeah but see this is exactly the thing that bugs me lately. It's like everything has to be either a total disaster or totally no big deal, there's no room for just "hey that was a real situation and I handled it." I mean maybe it's just me but I feel like people are always trying to one-up or downplay instead of just saying "good job not dying." Like my neighbor the other day fixed a leaky pipe himself and someone had to chime in about how it's not that hard, just turn the water off and use some tape. But the point is he didn't know that till he tried and it could have gone sideways. Same thing here, you had a mechanical failure at altitude and you made a call that kept you safe. That's the whole ball game.