Question:
Fire extinguisher problem My problem is that I want one for my flight bag but don't want to pay $105 for the one Sporty's sells. Are there alternatives? Other than leaving open the chance of dying a horrible, fiery death?

Answer: A search of the NTSB database for "fire extinguisher" turned up 169 hits. A lot of the reports have nothing to do with fire; the report merely notes whether there was an extinguisher on board, much like it notes whether a flight plan was filed. No doubt not having a fire extinguisher explains why the pilot augured in after flying VFR into IMC. It appears that most of the time people unsuccessfully used fire extinguishers to put out fires on the ground. As often as not, people simply let the airplane burn without any attempt to extinguish the fire even though a fire extinguisher was on board. (Hey, I'm not going back in there!) Sometimes they were successful, though, especially if the accident was the result of a forced landing after fuel starvation. In this case the fire was probably not very big. There was this case last year, though, where a Boeing 747 had a fire in (get this) its fire detection circuit: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20031113X01896&key=1 In this accident at Arlington, people on the ground put out the fire with fire extinguishers, probably saving the lives of the three passengers, but not that of the pilot. Whether they got the fire extinguishers out of airplanes parked nearby, I don't know. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020930X05248&key=1 And in this fire in a Piper, the pilot probably wished he had a fire extinguisher. Of course, he may also have wanted to set whoever did his last upholstery job on fire. http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20020717X01143&key=1 Anyway, reading the reports, I am convinced that having a fire extinguisher on board is probably a good idea. You may never use it on your own plane, but it might come in handy if you decide to help somebody else out. There were accidents also where it appears that there was an onboard fire and the occupants had a fire extinguisher, but they all died anyway, probably from asphyxiation. Perhaps they would have been better off if they had quick donning hoods. OTOH, maybe the hoods would have just ensured that they would still be conscious while they burned. The one thing that the GA accidents resulting from fire seemed to all have in common was poor maintenance. Stuck mixture controls, automobile wiring, improper or automotive nuts and bolts and clamps, airworthiness directives not complied with -- saving a few bucks does not appear to be worth it. And, bringing back the topic of an earlier thread, would you take off in an airplane where the mixture control was stuck fully open? This pilot did that last year; he even had to resort to shutting down the engine with the magnetos instead of the mixture so that he could refuel. Guess he wanted to make sure that his fire was a big one. :http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20030619X00912&key=1