Low Fuel Over Abuja
You are a PPL holder with no night rating, planning VFR from Ibadan to Abuja in a Cessna 172. Departure is 16:20 local; planned flight time 1 hour 50 minutes; sunset is 18:45. You carry 150 litres, giving about 3 hours 10 minutes endurance. The forecast is scattered cloud at 2,000 ft with 6 km visibility in haze, becoming 1,500 ft and 3 km by evening. You file a flight plan and depart. On arrival, Abuja Approach tells you to remain outside controlled airspace and hold at a VFR reporting point while a Boeing 737 is sequenced ahead. While orbiting, you drift into the control zone, ATC challenges you, and you transmit 'Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, low fuel'. You land with about 20 minutes of fuel remaining.
1. Was continuing the flight under VFR lawful, and where was the correct decision point?
Read the worked answer
Continuing VFR was not lawful, and the flight should have been terminated before it became a fuel problem. For VFR in controlled airspace below 10,000 ft the minima are 5 km visibility and the associated cloud clearances and ceiling; a forecast of 1,500 ft cloud and 3 km visibility is below that, and the trend was deteriorating. The flight also had no night rating, an arrival close to sunset and no alternate plan.
The decision point was at Ibadan or en route: divert, turn back, or land while VMC still existed. Continuing into a control zone on the basis of 'we're nearly there' is the classic VFR-into-IMC chain. Weather minima are a legal limitation, not merely a risk factor: a pilot who presses on commits an offence and jeopardises insurance cover.
2. What is the regulatory position on entering the control zone without clearance and on declaring an emergency?
Read the worked answer
Entering controlled airspace without a clearance breaches the rules of the air (ICAO Annex 2; Nig. CARs). A clearance is an authorisation, not a formality, and being told to hold at a VFR reporting point does not include permission to enter the control zone.
However, the PIC may deviate from the rules in an emergency to the extent necessary for safety and may declare an emergency. The position is stronger if the emergency is genuine: a 'Mayday' for low fuel is a legitimate distress call if the fuel state threatens safety. After landing, the pilot must report the airspace infringement and the emergency to ATC and to the NCAA through the occurrence-reporting process. The infringement came before the emergency, so the emergency does not excuse the earlier navigation and fuel decisions.
3. Assess the fuel planning and the reserve at landing.
Read the worked answer
The C172's endurance of about 3 hours 10 minutes against a planned 1 hour 50 minutes looked comfortable, but legal reserves must remain intact at landing: 30 minutes for day VFR, 45 minutes at night. Landing with 20 minutes' fuel breached the reserve, so the flight was misplanned once the orbit and deviation were added.
A proper plan would have included fuel for the trip, the diversion, the hold and the final reserve; a monitored fuel log with a committed diversion point; and a decision to land for fuel rather than orbit. Low fuel is not discovered on arrival - it is created by earlier decisions. The pilot should record the actual fuel figures and report the occurrence.