On 11 Jun 2005 09:53:17 -0700, wrote:

I am getting ready to restore an old Supercub --- wonderful old bird.
She has wing tanks and a tiny tubular header tank *behind* the cockpit.
Header tanks in front of the pilot mean fires. What happens is the
pilot has a hard landing and a fire erupts. He is stunned by slamming
into the panel -- because he hasn't installed shoulder belts. He gets
out too late because by the time he comes to, the fire and fumes have
caused fatal injuries. I have seen this several times. Be wary of the
header tank, no shoulder belts, and the moose stall. Everybody ought
to know what the moose stall is.

Fire erupting from a hard landing? From the description I don't think
"hard landing" is applicable, sounds more like **CRASH**.

We don't get to many moose stalls around here, there aren't that many
moose and the terrain is too rugged to get down to seen them.

I can't find the thread but once read
where an Ercoupe went down in flames because the header tank leaked
fuel into the engine compartment, causing an in-flight fire. Two
souls, a father and son, were lost in that tragedy.

The header tank on Ercoupes are on the engine side of the firewall?
Can anyone confirm that? All the designs I've seen have the header
tank behind the firewall, in front of the instrument panel. But of
course I've not seen every design in my lifetime...

Corky Scott