Skill/lucky escape
 

Pilot had "lucky" escape after aircraft caught fire near Inkberrow (From Redditch Advertiser)

G-BCDJ

Skill !
 

With a fire in the cabin it takes a great deal of clear thinking to land the aircraft quickly and safely in a field and then put out the fire.

Very well done!

How unfortunate!

Well done to him

...went to the bus stop and found a bus there that had already left...

Duh!

And it takes four fire engines to do that!

Relative to the size of the aircraft, it doesn't look that small a fire to me! Well done to the pilot.

And as to the response from the fire service, there will likely be a standard level of response to reports of an aircraft crash until the actual emergency service needs are positively identified.

He did very well :ok:

I'd like to know what the cause was. I wonder if it was a laptop battery...

Good job getting down safety!

That's a wake up call for all of us....

I wonder if the windows began to discolour during the flight or after the pilot landed - that's not something they mention to you during training...

Very well done! Massive respect to people like him :ok:

Good to hear that the CAA had been informed :ok: Pity the AAIB weren't:ugh:

Respect to who ever it was beat the odds.

A/c type?

Sir George Cayley

Presumably the police phoned the CAA and the CAA phoned the AAIB? Seems like a properly written article to me.

As for those Pipers... never trusted the bastards, what's it with not having your own door.

I really hate that and also the fact that they are so difficult to get in and out of. Give me a good old Cessna 152 anyday. It may not be stylish or fast but it is far more comfortable, easier to heat up or cool down, get in and out of and the high wing provides some shade from the sun. :ok:
Edited because I had meant to say well done getting the occupant(s) down in one piece even if the aircraft ended up rather the worse for wear.

Well done to the pilot - great result (& good reporting with no mention of schools or plummeting!)

As a piper driver i have to disagree with you DX Wombat

Cherokee's and Tommies are much wider than the 152! heating has never been a problem but i'm mostly upfront, but is the VIZ thats key for me, i have never forgotten going from flying a tommie to a blat in a mates 172 on the same day and realising what i couldn't see! ok the viz straight down to the sides is v-good but i like the heads up view the low wings give. although Cherokee's are a b'stard to get in and out of... i'll give you that.

Back on thread.... small fire my orse. if you were the front two pax you'd be on the wrong side of smoky, still says something for carrying a fire extinguisher with you. 100% skill in getting that down before he/she cooked! well done!

If it was a laptop battery fire, a fire extinguisher might not do anything. Those things are pretty vigorous.

My "plan" for that is to switch on the autopilot, altitude hold, pull back the power to idle, full flap, and at the instant of the stall warner going off open the door and chuck the thing out.

At ~ 60kt it should work.

Unlikely to have been a fuel fire - the only fuel going into the cockpit should be the fuel pressure gauge, maybe. That leaves an electrical fire, or a human-caused one like a fag being dropped.

Re a fuel fire, this makes a powerful case for using hermetically sealed switches throughout the cockpit. They did this after Apollo 1 for exactly that reason, and it more or less happens on upmarket planes, e.g. a TBM uses mil-spec sealed switches. But switches within avionics are generally open. It is easy to make the PTT switch sealed. Not that I think this was a fuel fire.

But yes I would not buy a single door aircraft either...

IO540,

I am conscious of being a little out of my depth (having never flown fixed wing) but what would the effect of opening a door have on your stall speed, particularly if it is asymetric?

I have had a couple of smoke in cockpit events, both of which were (fortunately) on the ground and both of which were taken care of by switching the offending item off. If it was a laptop, I don't suppose the power off will have much effect, and on a windows machine would take forever. "Are your sure you want to shut down" "Of course I am $£$£$$% sure"

Sorry; what I was getting at is that, in the TB20 I fly, opening the gull wing door at a high speed might rip it off, which might not do the elevator or the VS much good... So if one wants to chuck something out, it is best to slow down as much as possible. Early TBs have the little "draught" window but not mine.

It should be much safer to open the door on a Cessna or, if you have a co-operating person in the RHS, on a Piper, but you still need to slow down considerably.

IMHO, and obviously never having done it, if I had a smoking battery I would initially unplug the battery and try to chuck it out, or chuck the whole laptop out. One would not try shutting down windoze :) The cases of burning batteries appear to be caused by an internal short (a penetration with a sharp object is one way to do it) and nothing you can do externally is going to alleviate the situation. Once it goes off, it goes off.

There is actually another option for LIPO batteries which is to use the protective bag shown in this article. They only cost a few quid and should contain a fire in a small battery (but not the smoke). I carry one of these, tucked behind the liferaft. My son is into model flying so he has loads of them.

Well done to the pilot, I can't think of anything else worse than a fire in the air, must have been terrifying. It will be interesting to see what the cause was. I'm also of the opinion that Piper's should have two doors, not that the 28 family ever will of course.

Does sound like there might be a case for not allowing a laptop in the aircraft. Maybe I'll add that to my passenger briefing list.