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

 
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