plane caught fire

[solomon]

I was welding last Thursday on the tail section of the aircraft that i was building and a spark jumped into the interior without my notice and caught fire. By the time i noticed it had grown very quickly and had trouble finding the pressurised spray bottle i had next to me. So i was forced to push the plane away from the house and watched as the fire grew and i realised i left a fuel container in there from the previous engine test run, containing about a quarter of a litre of fuel it but it was too late to grab it. So it exploded in the fire. Neighbours came out and helped us take out the fire and now all that left of my plane is the metal frame. But I’ve already begun rebuilding the damage, the fire destroyed the whole front and middle section, the right engine and both propellers.

 

 

[Piet Fil]

Solomon,

 

That is sad new indeed, the only consolation is that nobody was hurt and nothing else was damaged. Keep your chin up and keep on building.

 

Phil

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Sad to read this Solomon. You will just have to put this down to experienced gained and next time take better precautions.

 

Maybe an opportunity to improve the design also.

 

keep at it Solomon sometimes things like this lead to better things.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[fly_tornado]

You need to make sure you store fuel safely, your mum would have been very upset if you burnt your house down!

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Sorry to hear about that loss Solomon....a good learning experience for sure. Welders when working on aircraft often use old wet towels or rags to guard against stray sparks. Your decision to pull the fire away from the house was a good one, no doubt under lots of stress !....Well done...now onto the next project .....................Maj...

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Solomon, I am reminded of a funny story by your post, that I will relate to you now, not aviation related, but will let you know that these things do happen to us all !!.

 

In the 50s when I was a young teenager we had a large well constructed timber 'outhouse' in the back yard prior to sewerage being put through our rural neighborhood. It was also referred to as the 'thunderbox'.

 

We also still had coal-burning steam trains which operated on a line about 3 Klms from our neighborhood.

 

I had a fascination about that black stuff that lay along the lines after falling from the train...coal. I rode over on my bike one day and grabbed me a box full, determined to work it out. I piled a heap up by one side of the outhouse, and expended about three boxes of matches trying unsuccessfully to light it. The old man came along and said" you have to build a wood fire first, and then throw the coal on." which I did.

 

I was sitting there watching it all, when the local protestant Father who had recently purchased a new HR Holded had a two car collision at out intersection, and ended up through our fence at the front gate, which he demolished.

 

I and the rest of the neighborhood gathered round to view the excitment, as the towtruck arrived to pull his vehical off our front gate.

 

Suddenly the unmistakable smell of locomotive burning coal wafted across the crowd. One neighbor was heard to comment" Gee I didn't think you could smell those trains all the way over here !".....

 

I rushed back to the scene of my coal experiment, to find one side of the outhouse well alight !....The coal had certainly kicked in, and the whole thing was quickly extingushed by the old man with a garden hose.

 

For months and even years after I was constantly reminded by the neighborhood, of the day I almost burnt the out-house down !!!............................... ....Maj...

 

 

[Pilot Pete]

After burning down the outhouse you would have really been in the s##t.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Sorry to hear that Sol, but yeah probably a good lesson in there - always first consider what could go wrong before using tools / machines. Lots of fires started by angle grinders and welders.

 

 

[rgmwa]

Sad to read this Solomon. You will just have to put this down to experienced gained and next time take better precautions. Maybe an opportunity to improve the design also. Keep at it Solomon sometimes things like this lead to better things.Ozzie

My thoughts too. Don't give up, and make it an even better plane than it was before.

 

 

[solomon]

Thanks guy I really appreciate it, but I’m not going to give up there, like some of you mentioned I’ve already stated making a few improvement to the design. Hopefully by the time it's done it would a much better plane than it was before. I remember the fire fighter came at the scene looking very surprised to see a small plane and asked if I built that all by myself when I told them they were very impressed and told me not give up and keep going with that great work. The moment after we finished up cleaning the big mess I when straight back to work on it again.

 

 

[Neil_S]

Thanks guy I really appreciate it, but I’m not going to give up there, like some of you mentioned I’ve already stated making a few improvement to the design. Hopefully by the time it's done it would a much better plane than it was before. I remember the fire fighter came at the scene looking very surprised to see a small plane and asked if I built that all by myself when I told them they were very impressed and told me not give up and keep going with that great work. The moment after we finished up cleaning the big mess I when straight back to work on it again.

Good onya, Solomon! Keep going with it!

 

Cheers

 

Neil

 

 

[Powerin]

Bad luck Solomon...but onward and upward!

 

If you were welding I assume you have a steel frame. Others here with experience might like to comment....would the strength of the steel frame be compromised by a fire? Also it may have warped a bit?