Originally Posted by
The500man
BPF, that is true but not everybody has a later model. My S2A POH includes emergency checklists for in flight engine restarts and freezing of the pitot-static head, and that's it. The S2C handling notes I have do include engine/ electrical fire checklists.
Interestingly it suggests if the fire doesn't go out or you need electrical power to continue the flight, switch the master switch back on and then start pulling CB's until it goes out. For an engine fire it suggests using a higher glide speed to find an airspeed which provides an incombustible mixture, then if it doesn't go out and you have a parachute with sufficient height remaining, it suggests you jettison the canopy and leave the aircraft!
I would suggest that the Pitts S2A is not a "typical" training aircraft at your average flight school. However if the point of the post is to point out that all POH's may not contain all of the information that is in the "typical late model Cessna or Piper POH's" ( ie anything built after 1970) that represent probably 95% of the aircraft that the are in a flying schools and clubs; then you are correct. For those aircraft it is up to the pilot to fully understand the systems and develop appropriate procedures. For the other 95 % it would seem reasonable to me to start by knowing and following what the factory POH says rather then just ignoring it and making something up.
Since the Pitts is a Day VFR machine I can't think of any situation where electrical power is essential for continued safe flight. It would seem to me that just turning off the power and landing NORDO at the nearest practicable airport would seem the best course of action. That is of course assuming that the smoke/fire immediately stopped. In any airplane an uncontrolled cabin fire is a desperate emergency and an immediate landing at the nearest survivable surface carried out as quickly as possible is IMO the best course of action.
As for engine fires the good news is every incident/accident report I have ever seen where the engine was immediately shut down and secured at the first positive sign of fire resulted in the fire spontaneously going out. The disasters occurred when an engine which was on fire was for what ever reason, left running.