Originally Posted by pierre smith (Post 535590)

That's a pretty quick build time for a -10!

Originally Posted by tc1234c (Post 537859)

I got a few minutes before I have to go out of town. Here is a quick answer.

The first sign was low fuel pressure. I turned on the boost pump. The fuel flow was very high (don't remember the number).

After 10 minutes (I had a 20 nm trip with 32 kts headwind at 2,600' running 23/2300 I was doing 90 kts GS) and 4 nm from my destination I smell the smoke and began the sequence of event I reported before).

My plane landed 1.5 to 2 sm from the end of the runway and the surface wind was reported 4 kts from south. In a dive I estimate that I must be doing 140-150 mph. So it took a little more than 1 minute to travel the 2.2 sm. I must started turning toward the field less than 60 seconds from the time I smelled something.

First has been burning under the tunnel for a few minutes. By the time I noticed it must has burnt through the skin.

Big smoke came out within few seconds after I put off the initial fire along the edge of firewall and tunnel. Now I believe by that time the brake lines have been burnt through.

I am going back to the hangar next week to open the tunnel cover and assess the damage. FAA inspectors want to come and take a look too. I will definitely post pictures.

Originally Posted by RVFlyer (Post 538981)

Dan H- You've obviously researched insulation material options thoroughly. I have a 16yr old RV-4 that I didn't build. This particular incident and thread have made me seriously consider what is installed in my aircraft. I also suspect that better materials may have come to market since mine was built. What insulation did you choose for your RV?

Originally Posted by Mike S (Post 538590)

Ted, the dry chem fire extinguisher residue needs to be cleaned up as soon as you can do so-------depending on what compound was used, it can be bad news for the aluminum :eek:

Originally Posted by scsmith (Post 539103)

Mike, as a former fireman may be able to tell us much more, or recommend an expert to ask, but I have been told in the past that the stuff in ABC-type extinguishers is extremely corrosive to aluminum, and gets into riveted joints and is very bad.
It is worth considering the idea of building a whole new fuselage rather than repairing this one. At least discuss it with an expert before settling the insurance. If you need to replace the whole fuselage because of fire extinguisher powder, then that will be part of the settlement.

For this reason, I made sure that the extinguisher in my hangar is BC-type. And the small one in the airplane is halon. Unfortunately it is hard to influence what the fireman who shows up at the scene uses.

Originally Posted by Mike S (Post 539110)

Steve, I was always in my told in my training that the stuff was corrosive also, and that is the basis of my comments to Ted.

I did go online to research the MSDS for ABD powder, but could not find any reference to corrosive listing--------but that doesn't mean it aint there.

My fire service tenure was over 8 years ago, so there is a chance the extinguishing agent has been changed-------but better safe than sorry.

There are a lot of fire extinguishers sold that are make of aluminum-----for whatever that is worth in the discussion.

Originally Posted by DanH (Post 539071)

From Ted's Picasa album....

The circled features are the melted/missing sections of the two brake lines. Note their location; well forward of the melted/missing floor section, and above the Ozite insulation. Given the insulation was thus between the hot firewall base and the melted sections, I assume the insulation ignited, then melted the lines.

Ted, did the brake lines melt anywhere else near the bare firewall, perhaps someplace above and forward of the heat duct cross tube?

No matter really....another observation: It is possible that the fire streaming back from the cowling exit was a nice tight narrow stream, but it is unlikely. So, why did it burn through only the tunnel floor and not floor areas in either footwell just outboard of the tunnel walls?

When you heat one surface of a panel, how hot it gets is heavily influenced by how readily it can shed heat from the opposite surface of the panel. In this case the tunnel floor burned through because it was being heated on both sides, unlike the footwell floor areas. There was a fire in the tunnel before the tunnel floor burned through.

Originally Posted by Ironflight (Post 539123)

I doubt that the stuff has changed much, and I know that it makes a heck of a mess - I was told my an insurance guy in our department that if you use a standard size fire department one on an engine compartment, the car is likely totaled these days.