Fair enough Fred, don't disagree with you at all mate.
There are two things I hope I never experience in flight, structural failure
and fire. Apart from being caused by a mid air collision, I'm not at all
worried about the Europa falling apart so I'm still left with 'fire'.
So what do you propose we can do about it in practical terms?
Apart from good housekeeping and vigilance, the main thing I intend doing is
making a cowl flap that can be fairly well closed up to limit the flow of
air. Just how hard this will be I don't know yet.
Regards
Kingsley
> I'll even propose that one need not fuss excessively over fire
> protection to merely protect the occupants, though obviously
> important. This blanket should be enough, I'd say. However, the
> further issue is how long the plane will remain flyable in the event
> of a serious fire in the engine compartment.
>
> What I think is more important is design and installation of
> appropriate things such that the risk of fire is extremely remote.
> The Rotax installation has several shortcomings in this regard, I
> believe, and I doubt Europa has tested it as FAA requires -- an
> in addition to no burn-through of firewall barrier material -- since
> it appears they require for composite aircraft that the test be
> performed while subject to dynamic loads and moving air inside the
> cowling expected in flight.
>
> A recent example of what I'm referring to is found in the following
> accident (Stemme motorglider with Rotax engine):
>
>
http://www.ntsb.gov/NTSB/brief2.asp?ev_id=20010717X01444&ntsbno=CHI01LA216&a
key=1
>
> What's noteworthy, in addition to similar faults in the Europa Rotax
> installation, is the few number of minutes for the fire to spread in a
> composite aircraft. There was also a tragic accident here (near my
> house!) where a Cessna 310 caught fire on departure, and the guy
> needed only to get back down from maybe 2,000' AGL over flat terrain.
> This is a metal airplane, not a plastic one of course, and an
> emergency descent in a 310 can be real quick if need be, but it took
> too long.
>
> Reg,
> Fred F.
>
>
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