Hi Chuck,
I figure by now you've probably done more research on fire
retardant
materials than anybody else with a Velocity. Any chance you
could publish
(in the Reflector) the worthwhile stuff you've found. I used to
build and
repair fiberglass boats and the only ones I couldn't fix were the
ones
that had seriously caught on fire. -- There's just nothing
left. Once
the fire gets to a certain temperature the fiberglass burns like
it was
soaked in gasoline... If that ever happened at altitude the only
thing
that would hit the ground is the engine!
Thanks,
Robin
Robin, I don't do the Velocity Reflector because I already spend
way too
much time already on the 2 rotary sites. However, I will give you
an answer
which you can post if you want to.
I actually was a fire protection engineer, althouh I'm embarrassed
to admit
it because of the 2 fires I had. Both were identical in origin
(failed oil
coolers), but the second fire burned the ignition and fuel
injection wires
which caused the engine to quit, leading to a forced landing.
Before the fire, I had done a few things to protect the plane from
fire. I
coated all the interior surfaces of the cowls with fire retardant
paint
(Ocean, I think from Aircraft Spruce). This saved me from a
serious fire
because it didn't allow the fiberglas to burn other than at a
couple
openings (exhaust pipe and abv engine heat vent). I was able to
make minor
repairs after both events which surely would have been total
damage
otherwise. I also covered my engine side firewall with Fiberfrax
(also
from A. Spruce) then a layer of thin aluminum. Aluminum will
combust, but
it takes a lot of heat to get it to burn. Mostly, it just melts.
After ther first fire, I put the fire retardant fuel injection
hoses (40
psi) inside of the orange fire sleeve jacketing. The original
hoses had
held, but were slightly fire damaged. In the second incident, the
fire
sleeve took the heat and the hoses were undamaged. I also have
changed to
teflon coated a/c wire which will not burn, and melts at very high
temp. I
also got rid of the side split black ribbed plastic tube wire
holding
material which had also burned. On my vital wire bundles, I'll be
using
fire sleeve (side split) with metal type ties (not plastic).
I'm using fire retardant (blue) (300 psi rated)hoses which I think
are as
good as SS covered teflon hoses, or aluminum. I'm moving the oil
cooler out
of the engine compartment into the wing. I'm also trying to
eliminate all
plastics, and shield hot surfaces (exhaust and turbo). Hope this
helps
Chuck H