Does your fuel cut-off cut off?

I see a number of students and renters inadvertently check this on a regular basis – accompanied by a look of bewilderment when engine is started and then stops after a bit… :-)

Mine works as I found out early on, when I still switched it off for parking. And forgot it once…

Yes, I was one of those renters. The airplane I fly the most (it is a single engine, one main tank in each wing and auxiliary tanks with pumps to transfer into the main tanks) has the “both” position for the fuel selector when the selector points aft. And a separate “fuel cut-off” valve with a pusher. The local club’s 182 has “both” when the selector points fore and aft is “off” (the cut-off).

Earlier this month, before I first flew our newly-bought Bolkow Junior, I religiously went through the check-list. I moved the fuel cut-off, assuming I was turning it on. I then sat familiarizing myself with the cockpit.
The previous owner came over as the engine stopped to say he never turned the fuel off.

Timothy wrote:

I manage two aircraft, both of which have two fuel cut-offs on each engine (fuel cock and firewall cock) plus a crossfeed cock, so a total of ten cutoffs, and I have discovered over the last year that almost none of the ten actually stopped the engine.

Very confusing post:

First off, why would you expect a cross-feed to actually STOP the engines ???

Second, I doubt that any of the “total of ten cutoffs” are actually “cutoffs” or “cocks” . I should add that the exact English term is in fact “stopcock” and it refers to a simple on/off device .

For the vast majority of aircraft fuel systems, the correct term would be “selector valve” and as the name implies, they are designed to deviate the fuel flow from one or multiple sources to one or multiple destinantions.
Having said that, in old Legacy piston twins, the fuel valve linkages can be very complex and the multiple linkages, bellcranks and bearing all get worn out and the result is the valves don’t always position correctly when selected from the cockpit.

Big difference between multi-engine and single engine fuel systems since most SEP have just one fuel selector valve and the handle is directly bolted to it.

If anything, pilots NEED to better know their fuel systems, in detail.

Balliol wrote:

I see a number of students and renters inadvertently check this on a regular basis

Not just students and renters, I have, ahem, checked the fuel cutoff in my own aircraft like this at least a couple of times…

Michael wrote:

most SEP have just one fuel selector valve and the handle is directly bolted to it.

This is true – but some SEPs don’t and it’s been the cause of at least one accident that I remember (a Tomahawk leaving Manchester Barton had the engine stop on takeoff because IIRC a problem with the linkage from the selector handle to the fuel selector valve resulted in the valve not being fully open, and the engine getting starved of fuel – unfortunately while the pilot survived the initial crash, he perished in the resulting fire).

alioth wrote:

This is true – but some SEPs don’t and it’s been the cause of at least one accident that I remember (a Tomahawk leaving Manchester Barton had the engine stop on takeoff because IIRC a problem with the linkage from the selector handle to the fuel selector valve resulted in the valve not being fully open, and the engine getting starved of fuel – unfortunately while the pilot survived the initial crash, he perished in the resulting fire).

Which just goes to show just how SERIOUS this subject really is, and why, at the risk of appearing pedantic, I’ve made the effort to correct some of the inaccuracies in the OP.