petrol powered planes and fire

[nicos7358]

has anyone any experience of fires with a petrol(unleaded) powered plane, after a crash or anywhere.

[1958steveflying]

Hi.. I have several petrol planes and never had any fire issue's... never crashed them either though. I have seen a few petrol planes crashed and all without any fire. Now jets.. . . thats a different story.

Steve

[Richard]

Nope, I've never seen or heard of a petrol powered plane catch fire.

As Steve says Jets, we have heard of... these can catch fire on start up!

[nicos7358]

Ok thanks, i'm trying to get a general concesus and reports of any actual incidents as my club has banned petrol and one of the main arguments was fire along with noise.

[giskard]

It could also be worries about refueling incidents too, not just crashes?

[1958steveflying]

Quote:Originally posted by giskard

It could also be worries about refueling incidents too, not just crashes?

Glofuel is far more flammable than petrol and i have not heard of any incidents with either.... other than someone throwing a drop of glofuel out of a nearly empty (luckily) gallon bottle onto a lit log bbq.

Steve

[Tony Smith]

I fly petrol, never had an incident, and I am well prepared if one occurs, there is some paranoia within clubs with petrol models,I have seen a few fires with Methanol fuel both in models and flight boxes.

The noise issue needs to be 're-calibrated' I have seen/heard 50cc petrol models...although louder than a .60 model, but the .60 model's exhaust note is far more 'irritating' than the lower 'louder' note petrol model........just my 2ps worth........

[BALSA BENDER]

BEEN FLYING PETROL FOR A WHILE NO ISSUES BUT ALWAYS CARRY A SMALL FIRE EXTINGUISHER,

[solentlife]

A Methanol fire is far far worse than a petrol fire as it has 2 factors :

It has far higher energy release

It burns near invisibly - the only indication is maybe a tinge to outer edge of flame from impurities and the heat haze that distorts view through the flame.

It is why NASCA / INDY with Methanol powered cars is so dangerous compared to F1 etc.

I blend fuel and inspect Fuels as a living ... I can tell you honestly that gasoline is generally safer than methanol.

[Richard]

(16-07-2011 17:57)solentlife Wrote:  I blend fuel and inspect Fuels as a living ...

Off Topic Question: Is 'supermarket' fuel the same as what you get from the big named brands such as BP, Shell, etc. ?

Maybe the answer is a whole topic in itself