Okay, I'm a little confused here by some responses. Are you saying that the APU on the 727 cannot run in flight if the FE forgets to shut it down prior to takeoff?
I have had it happen to me twice, once I caught it right after takeoff and the second time was the story I related. If I recall correctly a American Airlines 727 crashed shortly after takeoff on night, west bound out of LAX, when the FE left the APU running and essential power on the APU and when he realized what he had done he shut down the APU with the Fire Shut off switch causing the loss of all flight instruments.
Now, to answer this question.
You've had the APU fire warning while in cruise, then pulled the fire handle and all warnings went away. Why would you want to continue to a distant destination when there's suitable airport nearby at that point I wonder?
How do you know for sure that it was a false warning, or that the real fire is really out.
Now this just in the case of the 727. The APU sits in the main gear well, actually between the main gear. In that area there is a fire detection system for the APU and a separate system for both gear wells. The wheel well fire detection is not separate, one system for both wells. When the APU fire handle is pulled the container that the APU is in is sealed off from the wheel well area. When the FE pulled the fire handle the light went out immediately. The wheel well fire lights never illuminated, we did not fire the extinguisher as we had a positive proof of what had caused the fire warning to go off. In truth the fire detection system in the 727 is more of an 'overheat' system as opposed to an actual fire detection system.
In the situation I described in my previous post if we had both an APU and Wheel Well fire indication and if either light had not gone out the second the fire handle was pulled I would have reacted differently.
Hard to get good help at the Marshall's Service?
Actually we had some really good pilots there, but sometimes a few slip through the crack. In defense of the two guys with me that day, they were new to the system and both became very competent pilots that I later enjoyed flying with.
Oh, by the way, it is Marshal, with one 'L'.
