In a message dated 11/11/2004 8:10:37 AM Central Standard Time,
lorn@dynacomm.ws writes:
Now
that I think about it, I don't think that you should lean the plane
at
all. If I have a fire at startup, my engine may be able to suck the
fire
into itself if left running. I can't think of a better place to
put the
fuel than into the engine. Am I missing
something?
Lorn, Et Al,
Assuming the fire is from an oil or fuel leak in the engine compartment,
most of us would not be sucking the fire into the engine because of fancy air
induction systems, ram air, etc. Now, my old Skymaster could possibly do
that because the air intake (thru a filter) sat in the upper cooling plenum --
that is the induction air was being taken from inside the cowling.
If the engine was running, I guess a better sequence would be to turn off
the fuel supply valve but leave the mixture rich so that most of the fuel
in the lines, gascolater and pump could be burned inside the engine
rather than in the engine compartment.
BTW, yesterday I saw a Lancair 235/320 restoration project that left me
with my jaw hanging. Here is the setup - The gear switch was an ordinary
toggle switch set at the bottom of the left side of the panel - low
enough to be exposed to a knee or bad hand movement (bad idea).
JLA Howdy! This is Jim. I
need to interject some light to this detail. The switch location was the
culprit to a previous incident that resulted in the "gear up" at a high desert
episode in ground effect. But no fire on that incident.
JLA The second incident that did this ship in was PIO by the pilot
insisting that he get this bird on the runway and not go around as would have
been prudent.
Instead the nose gear overcenter link gave out after about the third PIO
and said "I'm outa here" and broke allowing the nose gear to fold. The
rest is pretty much as stated....
Thanks for visiting and appreciating the restoration!......JLA.
Upon landing and rollout, the nose gear was retracted
(probably thru the switch going up) and as the nose/bottom cowl was scraping
along, a fuel line was broken open and an engine compartment fire
ensued. At some point, the fuel was shut off and the pilot successfully
exited the airplane. The fire burned the spinner, the right side of the
cowl, the right edge of the upper deck/header tank, the right fwd canopy was
burned and plexiglas deformed, the right fwd fuselage skin burnt, the right
fwd upper stub wing skin burned and bubbled and there was some minor fire
damage behind the right side of the panel. I do not know how the fire
was put out and, with respect to the airframe, the damage was only to the
outer skin and a singeing of the outside of the foam core.
The most interesting part. Almost none of the fiberglass was
consumed by the fire, but the epoxy was. That is, all of the components
that suffered flames were as though at some heat level the epoxy was liquefied
and then joined the fire but the glass fabric did not burn. In fact, the
fabric, sans epoxy, looks and feels normal except that it is
black. Of course, some edges here and there were burned away.
The spinner itself is basically a bowl of floppy fabric! Parts of
the cowl show the coarse and fine glass fabric and the glass mat material
that was used in its construction. The next time I visit this project, I
will try to get some pictures.
Interesting, Huh?
Scott
Krueger AKA Grayhawk
N92EX IO320 Aurora, IL (KARR)
Some Assembly
Required
Using Common Hand
Tools.