My Engine Fire!!

It's 10pm. It's 6 degrees outside. I decide to go flying. I fly an Cessna
150.

The engine has a Tanis preheater. During the pre-flight I notice that the
engine block feel reasonably warm. Everything else looks good.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. No joy. I let it crank for a
reasonable time to clear any flooding and repeat.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. No joy. I let it crank for a
reasonable time to clear any flooding and repeat.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. Backfire. I pause and wonder
"what the heck, it's never done that before." Then I notice a glow
from
under the engine cowling. And smoke. How weird, that's never happen before.
About two nanoseconds later I realize the engine is on FIRE!!!!!

I begin to bail out of the plane. But I cannot get my seatbelt undone. I
say
out loud "calm down", get my seat belt undone, and leave the plane.

About 30 seconds later, watching a bit of glow and smoke come from under my
cowling, I realize that the plane is not going to immediatly explode. I go
back to the plane and look for a fire extinguisher. There is none, but I do
grab my flight bag and run to the car. No fire extiguisher there either.

By now about a minute has gone by. The glow is gone, but the smoke
continues.
I sit and wait. I'd like to open the oil-access door, but I have no idea if
the fire is out and don't want to add any extra oxygen.

Finally, after 5 minutes, I walk to the plane. The cowling is cool to the
touch. I open the oil access door. Everything looks fine. Great! Now I
can go flying.

Er, not. I decide that people who fly after engine compartment fires are
those people who end up on the "How Stupid Was He" columns in my
favorite
flying magazine. I push the plane back in the hanger.

The mechanic says it might be that I over-primed the engine. It also might
be
an accumuation of oil from an oil leak. Everything important seems to be OK
except my pride.

Conclusions:

1) I forgive myself the panic two seconds with the seat belt. Next time I'll
be calmer but it was my first engine fire and I was un-calm for only two
seconds.

2) One should remember the fuel shut-off valve. It's quite out-of-sight, but
this would have been the only time in my whole flying career that it would
have actually been useful.

3) I'm gonna have to reread the "cold weather starting procedure"
section of
the manual.

4) The inside of the cowl is rather hard to see. How the heck is one suppose
to know if there is oil accumulating? Especially since there were no
significant oil drippings onto the hanger floor and the engine was not
consuming oil unreasonably.

5) Fire extinguishers. For this fire it would have made things worse. For a
different fire, it might have made things better. Hmmmmmm.

6) Insurance. The plane is insured, and I can clearly afford the deductable.

That makes many things OK.



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In article , says...

It's 10pm. It's 6 degrees outside. I decide to go flying. I fly an Cessna
150.

The engine has a Tanis preheater. During the pre-flight I notice that the
engine block feel reasonably warm. Everything else looks good.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. No joy. I let it crank for a
reasonable time to clear any flooding and repeat.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. No joy. I let it crank for a
reasonable time to clear any flooding and repeat.

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. Backfire. I pause and wonder
"what the heck, it's never done that before." Then I notice a glow
from
under the engine cowling. And smoke. How weird, that's never happen before.
About two nanoseconds later I realize the engine is on FIRE!!!!!

I'd like to hear the opinions of others - but the first thing I'd have
done at this point is - keep cranking! While cranking, turn the fuel to
off (even if you have to stop for a bit). I'd probably open the
throttle wide too - while cranking - suck it all in.

If sucking it back into the carb didn't work - I'd carry on with your
procedure (bail out!

--
Duncan

I prime 3 or 5 shots and crank the engine. Backfire. I pause and wonder
"what the heck, it's never done that before." Then I notice a glow
from
under the engine cowling. And smoke. How weird, that's never happen before.
About two nanoseconds later I

realize the engine is on FIRE!!!!!

I begin to bail out of the plane. But I cannot get my seatbelt undone. I
say
out loud "calm down", get my seat belt undone, and leave the plane.


Before bailing from the plane try this. Throttle and Mixture off and crank the
starter. This should draw the burning gases through the carburetor and into
the cylinders where without any further fuel they will die for lack of oxygen.
I would be that the carburetor's aluminum venturi is distorted or melted away
completely.

John Dupre'

5) Fire extinguishers. For this fire it would have made things worse.

How so?

That makes many things OK.

Thanks for sharing that story -- it's one of my "worst-case scenarios,"
especially with the kids strapped in the back seats.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Interesting story (assuming you are not an April Fools troll), but you did
not quite learn the right lessons. If it makes you feel any better, one of
my students did the same thing just a couple of weeks ago, except that I was
with him and we used the proper emergency procedure, limiting damage to a
burned air filter and an hour of cleaning soot off the engine.

First of all, you over-primed the engine, but you knew that, didn't you? You
have a pre-heater, which means that you do not use cold weather starting
procedures. Letting it crank a reasonable time to clear any flooding does
not get rid of the fuel on the air filter and everywhere else it has dripped
under the cowling. No more than two shots of primer should have been plenty.
If the engine does not start you stop cranking and find out why.

Secondly, you seriously abused that poor starter. Your POH specifies wait
periods between attempts to start the engine in order to allow the starter
to cool. The service life of the starter is greatly shortened by this kind
of treatment.

As others pointed out, you should have known whether the plane had a fire
extinguisher and where it was located, as well as whether it is effective
against fuel fires. Most aircraft have Halon extinguishers which work well
on such fires.

You also need to study your emergency procedures. Your checklist contains a
procedure for fire while starting the engine and you should have committed
that to memory. You should also practice all these emergency procedures on a
regular basis. Jumping out of an airplane on fire endangers not only your
airplane but all the airplanes around you. The owners of those planes would
have come looking for you expecting compensation for the damage to their
property.

When you put the plane away in the hangar you did not really know that the
fire was out. Something could have been smoldering away in the cowling.
Hours later the fire might have restarted and burned down the hangar, the
neighboring hangars, and all the planes inside them. You could have been
liable for literally millions of dollars of damage. The cowling needs to
come off (all of it, not just the top piece) and you need to take a look
everywhere.

The one thing you did right was not fly the airplane immediately. A mechanic
needs to examine the engine for damage, especially to the air filter,
wiring, and hoses.

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

Good stuff snipped....

Most aircraft have Halon extinguishers which work well
on such fires.


CJ,
Is there a special exclusion for the use of Halon in planes?
I thought Halon was outlawed or common use and now required special
permitting.
Great stuff tho.

Marty

"Marty" wrote in message
...
Is there a special exclusion for the use of Halon in planes?
I thought Halon was outlawed or common use and now required special
permitting.

AFAIK, halon *production* is banned. However, there's a considerable
stockpile of halon left, and you can still purchase halon extinguishers. No
permits required to buy.

Pete

Marty wrote:

I thought Halon was outlawed or common use and now required special
permitting.

Halon is banned in Europe. Recycling Halon is still allowed in America.

George Patterson
Treason is ne'er successful, Sir; what then be the reason? Why, if treason
be successful, Sir, then none dare call it treason.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Marty wrote:

I thought Halon was outlawed or common use and now required special
permitting.

Halon is banned in Europe. Recycling Halon is still allowed in America.

Recycling? Not _use_?

"Marty" wrote in message
...

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

Good stuff snipped....

Most aircraft have Halon extinguishers which work well
on such fires.


CJ,
Is there a special exclusion for the use of Halon in planes?
I thought Halon was outlawed or common use and now required special
permitting.
Great stuff tho.

Halon is not outlawed. You cannot produce it, but there are sufficient
stockpiles of the stuff to make fire extinguishers for years.

It is a great example of the idiocy of environmental laws. Bureaucrats would
rather you burn alive than suffer a miniscule risk of getting cancer 20
years down the road.