Fire Extinguisher Installation

27 Sep 2020 Fire Extinguisher Installation

Posted at 10:28h in Fuselage by Mickey 0 Comments
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I want a fire extinguisher in my aircraft “just in case”. I have no illusion that a serious inflight fire can be put out with this little guy, but perhaps a smaller cockpit fire could, or if on the ground and something happens, I can get it out quickly. It’s less than one kilogram total with the mounting hardware, and right in line with the pilot position for W&B purposes.

I considered a lot of different places for the extinguisher, including behind the pilot seat, on the floor just behind the stick under the seat pan, on the right below the panel, and of course where it finally ended up. I think this is a good location as it’s accessible in flight, and can easily be grabbed if on the ground and it’s needed. The passenger won’t be able to reach it without extreme gymnastics. It’s secure in case of an accident assuming forward impact. No issue with negative Gs while flying, and it will support 6Gs positive.

Here’s the final result. My objective was to ensure that it didn’t get in the way, would survive in case of an off field landing – assuming g-forces are horizontal, be easily accessible in flight and on the ground. Seems to have met all the criteria. This location does not bother me at all when flying, even though it’s just above the “armrest”.
I picked up this machanism from ebay or amazon. It’s made of aluminum, and it quite light but feels solid. I drilled and threaded new 10-32 holes for AN3 bolts. Used threadlocker to keep the bolts tight, and of course I’ll keep an eye on that. I needed a 0.064″ shim to move it down so that the “Pull” plunger cleared the edge of the frame.
I considered using countersunk Torx 10-32 screws, but thought I’d first try with normal AN3 bolts to see if the fact that they sit up like this bothers me.
Test fit with clecos before drilling out the mount to 10-32.
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