I'm following this subject with interest.
I thought that the general consensus is that we try to avoid putting
unneccesary weight in our little aircrafts. How usefull is a fire
extinguisher actually? We are smart enough to only use uncombustible
materials in the cabin, right? We use teflon insulated wire's, right? We
only perform non-smoking-flights, right? So how do people actually
imagine a fire starting in the cabin?
Now I know a risk: the fuel. If your tank starts leaking you have a
potential fire. Actually this is the only risk. But I can't imagine how
to extinguish a fuel fire from a leaking tank with a small 1 or 2Kg fire
extinguisher. In the pictures of Jos' mishap I noticed that the fireman
had to use quite some more powerful stuff to get this fuel fire under
control. On the pictures there was actually more foam than airplane, and
there were still flames visible...
The downside of these little extinguishers is that they bring in quite
some weight, can become a projectile during a crash, that they are
unable to extinguish a fuel fire anyway but suffocate the crew during
the attempt, and that a non fuel fire is extremely unlikely.
For the weight saved you can bring in quite some other safety enhancing
/ survival goodies, for events which are more likely than a non fuel
related fire starting.
Just my 2 cents...
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Best regards,
Frans Veldman
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