REFLECTOR:Secondary fire detection

[reflector@tvbf.org]

I know of one fire in a canard (long ez) and 3 in conventional planes 
(regular certified stuff.)  The fire in the Long EZ was fatal, it burned 
away his control system before he knew what was happening.  In the 
certified birds, one in a Malibu burned through the firewall before they 
knew what was going on, killed the CFI and horribly disfigured the 
student.  The other two knew they had fires and stopped the engines and 
deadsticked, and lived.

The key is knowing that you have a fire.  In a pusher, without detection 
devices, there's no way to know.

There are plenty of planes - experimental and non - flying without 
equipment that would reduce their risk.  An awful lot of planes and pilots 
are VFR, the vast majority don't have parachutes.  The pilots have decided 
that the cost, either in money or weight or inconvenience, isn't worth the 
reduced risk, whether that reduction is big or small.  It's their choice.

Fire detection is pretty cheap, both in money and weight.  Like anything 
you can find an expensive, complicated way to do it, but just heat sensors 
about as good as you're going to get.  A meter is an interesting idea, I'd 
be curious to know what kind of temps the inside of the cowl sees in flight.

Windows in the firewall?  I wouldn't ever do it, but I've heard MUCH worse 
ideas in brainstorming sessions.

At 01:12 AM 7/18/03 -0400, you wrote:
>Thanks Richard:
>
>I was just giving an answer to this camera issue.  We are going crazy with
>this engine fire stuff.  How many Velocities are flying without a problem?
>The instructions call for a shut off valve and a year ago we were talking of
>temp sensors from Radio Shack of which I am installing two in two different
>locations.  The meter was just an idea to replace the camera and the glass,
>which I think is a little too much.
>
>Have you ever heard of fire in other planes?  Give me a brake, if Velocity
>is a time bomb then forward engine planes are smoke chambers traps.
>
>Fred.