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View Full Version : Fire Bottles: Silly Question.....buuutt

spirit61
23rd Sep 2008, 19:19
Does the C/B pop on the fire bottle in the S-61 when the squib is fired? For some dumb reason the chief of maintenance won't let me try.

Thanks in advance
Greeny9
23rd Sep 2008, 19:42
Is this a serious question? I beggar belief! CB's are there to prevent short circuits drawing too much current and starting a potential fire! if you fire the squibs, the botles will fire. no CB's tripping unless there is a fault.
Why would you want to fire the squibs to prove this?
I prersume you work at McDonalds!!
spirit61
23rd Sep 2008, 20:07
Oh I should have known someone would not see the humor!!!! The reason I ask is that in the old Okie. check list always asked to check the C/B's after firing. Also the only time I have seen fire bottles actually blown in an aircraft (S-76) It did open the C/B's?
The part about actually trying it was just a joke!!!! Yikes!!!
Greeny9
23rd Sep 2008, 20:14
apologies spirit, have seen some daft questions on here. difficult to sort them out from each other sometimes. Don't know the 76 but on helis I've worked on the CB does not blow once fired!
I fell for your humour hook line and sinker with the coment about the chief not letting you try!
Unforunately, that's similar to some questions I really do get asked!
Greenie from Hell
23rd Sep 2008, 22:24
Also the only time I have seen fire bottles actually blown in an aircraft (S-76) It did open the C/B's?

I've also seen this on an S-76.
The fire bottle squibs on a 76 are fairly hefty devices, and unlike some squibs which when fired, simply use the pressure formed from the explosion, these ones fire a heavy lump of metal which pierces a diaphragm, and they take quite a high amperage to operate. (The last time I worked on one of these was quite a few years ago, so it's possible that it's been changed since then).

One of my duties was disposing of timex squibs by firing them, (in a specially designed cabinet),and I noticed that the S76 squibs often took far more current than other types, and I ocassionally had some that failed to fire. These duff squibs sometimes blew the CB on the discharge rig.