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If I'm following this correctly, this was a single event where the pilots had been flying on the aux tank for about an hour and "heard the front engine begin to suffer from fuel exhaustion." Now we are trying to figure out why the engine quit but six gallons are still in the aux tank. I'd like to suggest the possibility that the engine was not about to quit, but the pilots were anxiously expecting it to. When I run a tank dry on a long flight, I wait patiently until there is absolutely no doubt that there is no more fuel coming out of that tank and there is 0% power from that engine for at least 15 seconds. Usually I can use up most of the "unusable" fuel. I've put 19.2 in my aux tanks. I also select aux tanks at least 30 minutes apart so both engine don't quit at once.
My '67 T returns unused fuel to the respective manifold and then back to the engine. It would take an unlikely malfunction for that fuel to make it back to a tank.
I believe the D model is plumbed like my B model, but can't say for certain.
I'd suggest running the test again. If the engine does really, really quit, go to the main and land and report back.
If you are reluctant to let the engine quit completely, just think back to your multi training when you routinely shut down, feathered and secured critical engines in those lopsided conventional twins. Skymasters excel at single engine flight. Switch to a good tank and they light right up.
But, I run lean of peak, with 6 quarts of W-65 in temperate weather, so what do I know?
Bob
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