All of us fear and inflight fire. There has been a ton of very good discussion on making the firewall as fire resistant as practical, to the point that someone following Dan H's designs will exceed anything that most certified airplanes has. But there has been little focused on the causes of firewall forward fires and how to prevent them, which in my opinion is even more valuable.
I could start of by saying that there are fires that happen due to problems somewhat beyond our control, like a catastrophic engine failure, but most are a result of poor design or implementation. Even in the case of a catastrophic engine failure like a connecting rod punching a hole in the crankcase spraying oil on the hot exhaust, there are measures that can be taken to minimize the chance of, or intensity of a resulting fire. FWF is an area of where we can easily control the design and the quality of the installation to minimize the chance of fire.
So with that introduction, it would be interesting to see posts about what folks think is important, and discussions on what techniques might be the best for prevention.
We should consider the basic requirements for fire- fuel, air (oxygen) and ignition source (heat), and how to keep from having all 3 in one place.
Go for it!
I could start of by saying that there are fires that happen due to problems somewhat beyond our control, like a catastrophic engine failure, but most are a result of poor design or implementation. Even in the case of a catastrophic engine failure like a connecting rod punching a hole in the crankcase spraying oil on the hot exhaust, there are measures that can be taken to minimize the chance of, or intensity of a resulting fire. FWF is an area of where we can easily control the design and the quality of the installation to minimize the chance of fire.
So with that introduction, it would be interesting to see posts about what folks think is important, and discussions on what techniques might be the best for prevention.
We should consider the basic requirements for fire- fuel, air (oxygen) and ignition source (heat), and how to keep from having all 3 in one place.
Go for it!