sprocket wrote:
I was unfortunate to have an in-flight engine fire on a B206 last Saturday.
There were no indications from the T's & P's, and on landing the fire worsened, presumably because power was being reduced. It got even worse when I shut down to flight idle.
It now transpired that a Turbine seal had given up, allowing oil from the header tank into the combustion chamber and therefore igniting.
I was informed that if the flight had continued for another 10 – 15 minutes, the Donkey would have stopped due to lack of oil.
For future reference, apart from low oil pressure, high oil temp, what other symptoms would/could there have been to have warned me?
Well.......you didn't exactly have an "engine fire" now, didya? That would be characterised by open flame in the engine compartment but
outside of the engine, no? What
you evidently had was an internal seal that let go that let a bunch of oil get into the combustion chamber to burn with the fuel. Probably made a great steaming gobs of white-ish smoke that must've looked bl**dy awful but in reality wasn't a "fire" and posed no immediate threat or danger to your poor 206. ...Until the oil ran out, as you noted. But at that point the source for the smoke would also be gone.
Although we all probably feel apprehensive about them, engine fires in turbines are not generally a cause for worry. Sure, fuel lines can break, and fires
have happened, but they're rare. Even if a fuel line broke and sprayed fuel, there's really nothing in the 206 engine compartment to ignite it (it's Jet-A after all). Furthermore, most of the mechanical failures that could cause a fire would likely cause the donk to quit pretty quick anyway, so the big bang would probably be your first indication.
In the unlikely event of a
real engine fire (ask the early 206L-1 pilots), you'd have to be on the ground very quickly indeed before the aircraft was so consumed that controllability was lost.