I used to have a mini Halon extinguisher in my 170, mounted to the legs of my right seat, but haven't gotten around to mounting one in my Pacer. Nor had I thought very hard about where to mount it in my Bearhawk. After doing a little reading, I'd probably step up to the 2.5 lb version.

I randomly came across this forum thread that has reminded me how important it is to have an extinguisher readily accessible from inside and outside the cockpit (close to the door opening, not stashed in baggage.)

https://bck.pt/55xtm

He says it was a startup electrical causation.



Probably could have been saved and required some FWF work at this point.



She's gone.



Glad the guy was ok, but ouch! The heartbreak!

One thought: I found a bit of unused real estate for my Halon bottle right on the joystick. It's mounting bracket is simply hose clamped on the forward part of my stick, totally out of the way but immediately right at hand. I have not seen this on other aircraft, just mine, try it, you may find it is a better solution then other mounting options.

Prior to rebuild the extinguisher was mounted in the same location using adel clamps in the same location as the tabs in the following picture.



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As a 34 year career firefighter you really need to practice on a real fire. Maybe watch some you tube. You need a plan on how to get the chemical to the base of the fire. If you don't know how to use an extinguisher, it won't put the fire out.

Cheers...Rob

To all;

What would be the collective thoughts on a video tutorial place in the "knowledge" forum crafted by a subject mater expert. I ask but have no skills of knowledge of such matters but would welcome the opportunity to be better informed.

Is this something that could be placed in the forum Zzzz ?

Mapleflt wrote:To all;

What would be the collective thoughts on a video tutorial place in the "knowledge" forum crafted by a subject mater expert. I ask but have no skills of knowledge of such matters but would welcome the opportunity to be better informed.

Is this something that could be placed in the forum Zzzz ?

Visit with one of the Part 135 operators near you. Fire extinguisher training is an annual requirement during recurrent training. Some ARFF units will also demo the techniques. FWIW, a tiny halon extinguisher isn't likely to put out a fuel fire... at least from my non-emergency training the best we might hope for is it'll knock flames back for a short time — hopefully long enough to get out of the plane (on the ground). For some reason the company didn't offer its pilots an opportunity to 'practice' extinguishing a cockpit panel electrical fire with the halon bottle. Dunno, I guess they didn't have any sacrificial aircraft.

Fighting a fire in a larger airplane with multiple resource is one thing, in a smaller GA aircraft I suspect its a whole different story. I do receive annual awareness and training but its in a transport category airplane.

A well crafted video "tutorial" may be a value to the BCP community. If I had the skills and knowledge I would most certainly offer to craft it but alas I do not.

It's important to realize that extinguishers are a bit of a misnomer - their first, and really only priority is to knock the fire back enough to protect life (e.g. let you get out). If the fuel source is minimal enough that your little bottle can put it out then great, but in an avgas-fueled fire your chances of safely getting to the base of the fire are not great, especially in a closed engine cowl.

Training is critical. I watched someone try to put out a motorcycle fire at a racing event once; he didn't know how to work the thing (had seen them his whole life, but never actually used one) and ended up covering himself in dry powder instead of the bike. The race fuel made pretty quick work of that and it was only a pinhole leak.

I think a how-to made by a qualified person, with video showing how to aim and use a cockpit-appropriate extinguisher, would be a very valuable thing. Maybe show some ways hangar fires can develop as well. When I got my hangar it just happened to have a few extra extinguishers in there from the last tenant, so I distributed them around the space. Not much scares me in there except maybe a fire blocking my way to the man door while the big door is closed. Again, the point is to use them to get out. If I can keep the building from going up that's cool, but not my chief concern at that point.

On top of a video/article, practical experience is highly useful to have. Talk to your local fire station or airport, they may offer training or be able to help you out. Some employers will even sponsor it; mine had the local FD come out and do burn bucket training one day. The tendency to panic in a burning enclosed space is very real, it's a bad time to realize you have to read the instructions first.

I don't currently have one in my 182, but it's one of the first things coming to a cockpit near me once I get the interior reassembled. There isn't really room between the seats like the newer ones, but I'm sure some solution will present itself with proper application of power tools.

When I was flying SE 135, all of the airplanes had 5 lb. extinguishers mounted on the seat frame of the pilot seat, behind the pilot's calves. So that's what I have, a 5 lb. Halon mounted there. There's no really convenient place in a small aircraft for a decent sized extinguisher. The 5 pounder is about as large as is usable, but there aren't many places to put it. I've practiced getting it out, and it's admittedly awkward, but I haven't practiced actually using it.

I think a tutorial here has some merit, perhaps with a video.

Cary

I'm willing to speculate that Zzz has his teeth into this one as we chatter away about it !!!!!

I’ve been raised (military aviation) that fire extinguishers are for people and fire trucks are for aircraft.

Agreed, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view) where most of us BCP types like to play a fire tuck will never get to !!!!

Mapleflt wrote:Agreed, fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your point of view) where most of us BCP types like to play a fire tuck will never get to !!!!

A good point, but there’s no point in potentially injuring yourself out in the woods trying to fight a fire with a 5-lb halon jug when you can just hit SOS on your SPOT/InReach and sit down to start thinking about what your next airplane will be.

I got the opportunity to use the one in my 182 when I went to look at it to purchase it.The previous owner had the plane since the 1980's so I assumed he knew how to start it and wasn't going to tell the guy what to do. It was Jan/Feb time, pretty chilly out and he was priming with the throttle. Battery was getting weak and it happened to almost fire as it wore down, just enough to catch the fuel in the intake on fire and that was it. Pulled the bottle out from behind the seat, shoved it into the cowl flaps and let it go. Very little damage other then a scat hose once we got the cowl off and inspected everything. Not sure if it would have been a total lose without it, but was glad he had it. Makes people laugh when I tell them it caught on fire and I bought it anyways.

Moral of the story; use the dang primer, that is why its there. And an extinguisher isn't a bad idea either.

"A good point, but there’s no point in potentially injuring yourself out in the woods trying to fight a fire with a 5-lb halon jug when you can just hit SOS on your SPOT/InReach and sit down to start thinking about what your next airplane will be".

Also very true and wise sir but it may stop the fire from consuming a large acreage of bush along with it, unless your looking for an airshow from the water bomber fraternity.

On an interesting side note in 1987 a group of us where flying sailplanes in Australia (some winter fun) and it was required that we carry a "beating mat" to put out a fire sparked by and out landing and replace all external ferrous materials with non-ferrous for the same reason, initiating a brush fire.

Mapleflt wrote:"A good point, but there’s no point in potentially injuring yourself out in the woods trying to fight a fire with a 5-lb halon jug when you can just hit SOS on your SPOT/InReach and sit down to start thinking about what your next airplane will be".

Also very true and wise sir but it may stop the fire from consuming a large acreage of bush along with it, unless your looking for an airshow from the water bomber fraternity.

On an interesting side note in 1987 a group of us where flying sailplanes in Australia (some winter fun) and it was required that we carry a "beating map" to put out a fire sparked by and out landing and replace all external ferrous materials with non-ferrous for the same reason, initiating a brush fire.

I hadn’t thought of that.

Beating map - awesome! Gotta love the Aussies!

Yikes, typo its a "beating mat" not map !!!!!!

Cary wrote:.. all of the airplanes had 5 lb. extinguishers mounted on the seat frame of the pilot seat, behind the pilot's calves. .....

Great location in a 4 seat Cessna.
I made a flat aluminum plate that's very securely tie-wrapped to the seat frame,
the extinquisher bracket bolts to that.
The plusher front seats have a skirt,
the extinquisher bracket can bolt through that to a doubler under the skirt.

The silver in the bottom left corner is the "top handle" of the halon extinguisher in my 182H. It fits great, not in the way of the secondary seat stop "seat belt" mechanism, I never hit it getting in or out. I'm glad it's there and hope I never get to try it !

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I think this is a good topic to have come up periodically. Here’s a link to some previous discussion. There’s a second imbeded link in the below thread as well.

https://backcountrypilot.org/community/forum/latest/fire-extinguisher-for-plane-13543?p=180454#p180454

CW