Anybody have anything to add about fire extinguishers? Seems like all the rentals I've flown have had them mounted on the floor between or behind the front seats. Chief has some halon extinguishers from $62 on up. Should I go for the rechargeable? Thoughts on mounting?

I just mounted a HR3 Dual Halon (1211&1301 blend) in the Super Cub.

The things are really going up in price. Probably due to the fact they have been outlawed for any use other than aviation.

Mounting the things on the floor may prevent their access after an impact. In a crash, the area that most always survives is the cargo/baggage area. But mounting it there prevents it's access if you need it in flight and are flying alone.

http://www.h3r.com/products/cockpit_fe.htm

Do you go streaming or flooding? Discharged as liquid or gas? I'm thinking liquid, because I want to get it on the fire asap and not risk breathing the shit. As far as places to mount, I would be more concerned with in-flight fire suppression, meaning I can access it from the left (or front) seat. If you survive a crash, but are unable to exit the aircraft quickly, I'd think access to the unit from the pilot's seat would be just as critical.

Zane, I have the fire ext in my 170 mounted horizontally on the front of the seat frame, so it's below my knees when I'm in the airplane. I fabricated an aluminum mount that tie-wraps to the seat frame, then the ext bracket bolts to that. Tie-wrapped to seat frame means temporary installation, so no paperwork required. Had to experiment to figure out the most easily inflight-accessable position for the ext, remember you have to be able to release the latch on the bracket.
If your front seats still have the factory metal skirts, you can bolt the ext bracket right to the front of that, with an aluminum backing plate on the inside of the skirt.
I've seen other 170's with the ext mounted on the floor behind the tunnel, aligned fore-and-aft & on the airplane centerline.

Eric

Whats nice about the 1301 halon is it seeks heat. So if you have smoke and fire come from the panel but can't exactly see the source you could shoot it up under the panel and the 1301 is supposed to find the flame.

Never used any halon products of any kind, just going by several published test reports.

Halon Decomposition Products and Toxicity

Was in a telephone switch room once when the Halon system was accidentally discharged by a technician; sounded like a rocket motor going off. The most exciting part was when six guys tried to get out the exit door at the same time, half of them pushing and the other half pulling on the door. The door had a crash bar but some folks do weird things when put in a suddenly stressful situation.

Halon is very low toxicity until it's actually fighting a fire. You want to make sure you ventilate the area well after the fire is out, and that's not much of a problem in a light airplane.