Fires from Gas power

I'd say very slim. I've never seen it, although I've heard one or two stories. The crash would have to rip gas lines off or split the tank the the raw gas would have to hit the hot muffler for fire to occur. Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

Depends how quick I get there and flick me lighter...

Never seen it happen...

-- Philip Rawson

Never seen it happen in the years I have been flying gas, either at the club field or any of the many events we have in Florida. The ingredients are there I suppose but for some reason it just is not a common occurrence.

Red S.

Red! But, every movie I have ever seen shows how gas explodes in flame on a crash...

On the serious side, I have never seen a fire start as the result of any model crashing. I have seen a couple on the ground, in the pits. Then again, I am limited to a little over 50 years of flying.

Has anyone seen a modek burst into flames on impact?

At TOC last year, Jason Schulman's plane caught fire after his crash on the last day. I saw it as we were leaving for the airport. Big plume of black smoke.

Hall

I personally have never seen it either, in nearly 40 years of flying.

Never crashed a GAS plane and got a fire. Have crashed TWO CL glow models and got fires, many years ago.

Also those old Hornets, no muffler, on spark ignition, with a little flood and timing too advanced could send blue flame some 4 inches out the exhaust. Really nice late in the evening. (;-)) Once I had spilled some fuel (3 to 1 gas-oil) on the area behind the engine, Flipped a prop as per above, and "WHAMO" we were on fire, Just singed hair for me but the front end and bottom of that big stunter was "repainted BLACK". Got it out pretty fast.

Post-crash fires normally need spilled fuel and some sort of spark to get them going. In the real world of aviation, the spark is usually provided either by metal skidding down a paved runway or by electrical systems being torn apart. In a model, the receiver or servos are about the only sources of spark, and even then the sparks are contained and not wide open to fumes. A battery wire being broken might do it. Hot exhaust systems aren't usually hot enough unless the engine was generating a lot of power at impact. In aviation accidents, more people die in the post-crash fire than in the impact. Much research has been done looking for ways to prevent fuel spillage and atomization. Don't believe what you see in the movies.

Dan

Not on impact, but I saw an electric powered airplane catch on fire while the pilot was walking over to the crash site.

Texas Pete AMA 59376

Never seen a fire due to a crash. Have seen a couple of fires when starting, one time a small fire with a glo fueled plane when starting (Apparently caused when removing the glo starter?)

These things do happen.

I've seen jet fires on video.

I saw a burn site in Colorado--caused by a gas plane crashing.

I've seen a friend's plane catch on fire. Bad wiring, if I misremember correctly.

I'm flying some gas planes now. I guess I'd better start packing a fire extinguisher. Gas is pretty volatile and fiercely explosive compared to our alcohol fuels.

Marty

I saw a gas plane start a fire two or three years ago. Plane hit a high tension wire at the far end of our field. It then dropped vertically, and after a few seconds we spotted a plume of smoke. A couple guys raced there with two fire extinguishers, and it took all they could to put out the fire, as it started a field fire. The only recognizable part of the aircraft was the engine block.

Always have a fire extinguisher at the field, especially with gas planes. We have one at the field, and I carry one in my car.

Alan Harriman

An iteresting scene happened at our field a couple of years back. A guy was flying his glow powered plane and all of a sudden the engine started sputtering and running really bad. He then began the landing procedures and got it back to the runway. Then the plane was on fire. Some people got their fire extinguishers and ran to the plane, but there was not much left intact when they arrived. The only thing still usable was the engine, nothing else.

Ciprian

We had a couple of fires last year. One was during a helicopter fun-fly in July so there was plenty of dry grass around to provide additional fuel. Heli goes down, starts small fire, quickly becomes a much bigger fire. See pics at

on the "Click Here", then choose "Preview" - they're towards the bottom. There are a couple of close-ups of what was left of the heli afterwards.

There was also an item in our newsletter, although we don't seem to have a copy online anymore, where a plane's gas engine backfired through the manifold (or something) and set the $7000 plane on fire. The owner is about

75 years old with arthritis and it would have taken him forever to get to his car to get his fire extinguisher; fortunately for him others ran to their cars, got fire extinguishers, and put it out before there was extensive damage. He supposedly was out there a week later with it flying again. I've never seen it but am curious as to what a $7000 airplane looks like.

Look at any TOC bird ! $2000-3000 for the Bird, $2500 for engine, at least $1000 in radio gear, and $$$ of miscellaneous 'stuff' to finish and VIOLA', you see it!

David

Haven't reached $7K YET, but it sickens me to review the cost of some of the stuff found in my hangar. And I look for deals!