In flight fire / emergency descent

I think I remember a Cirrus some years back that caught fire and people being trapped on the way down in the chute.

Isn’t a fire extinguisher required equipment on N-reg?

Airborne Again wrote:

Isn’t a fire extinguisher required equipment on N-reg?

Nope, although most recently certified planes (Cirrus, Columbia/Ttx, restart Cessnas, etc.) came with extinguishers and listed as standard &required, not optional equipment.

I had my exhaust stack cracked and it burnt a huge hole into the cowling.
It was hard to notice, just a smell and some smoke outside for 10 seconds or less.

Halon fire extinguishers are standard in my country for all aircraft, except you got a certified aerobatic plane. There was a discussion in another forum about usefulness of an extinguisher in a small GA aircraft and I don´t see a scenario for any possible inflight fire fighting . You´d be lucky to reach the bottle from your seat and next problem is to get access to the fire with a lot of covers usually hiding any fire behind them. There are a few fire accidents with airliners showing that even in a spacious aircraft with several extinguishers the crew had no chance to do much about it. So I really don´t see much use for on board extinguishers except for fire while still on the airfield. That is the reason why we will keep a small standard non-Halon extinguisher on the plane for ground use. Electric fire in the wiring should basically never happen provided the designer of the harness did his job as he should. Fuses have to be sized to the wires following them, so in all circumstances a fire should not start from electric reasons ! It is sad to remember that a Swissair airliner went down near Canada into the sea just for that reason, certified and all. Vic

If you had an engine bay fire (can see some flames escaping but not a visible inferno) and your over the sea (cold water) and 10 minutes from land, would you

Ditch as quickly as possible. If the fabric catches that’s all she wrote.

You´d be lucky to reach the bottle from your seat

In all aircraft I fly, the bottle is very easily accessible – either on the floor immediately in front of the pilot’s seat or between the front seats. Otherwise, what’s the point?

In the case of Lucius’ video it would likely have made a difference as the fire was in the floor on the pilot’s side. If nothing else, it could have helped reduce the burns on the pilot’s leg.

Fuses have to be sized to the wires following them, so in all circumstances a fire should not start from electric reasons !

That is true if the short has low resistance in comparison to the load resistance. In a circuit normally carrying a high current, a higher-resistance short could be enough to start a fire without making a major difference to the current. There is essentially no way to get protection from that just by using fuses or circuit breakers.

So I really don´t see much use for on board extinguishers except for fire while still on the airfield.

The guy who always does our yearly first-aid and safety equipment training with us uses to say that the best use for the first aid kit and extinguisher is another pilot’s accident. Waiting at the holding position you are always closest to any accident/incident happening on the runway. Especially at small airfields you might even be the only one in reach who can help. But only, if you have the proper tools at hand.

Follow the AFM – emergency descent as demonstrated in the USA is 30 degree bank, gear down, power idle and accelerating to Vlo minus ten knots. This usually pegs the VSI.

Engine fire in flight procedures would be type specific.