On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 8:45:03 AM UTC-8, JS wrote:
On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 6:17:05 AM UTC-8, Dave Nadler wrote:
On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 at 5:33:37 AM UTC-5, Justin Couch wrote:
This was the second engine bay fire in this particular glider.
The reason it has the Jets fitted was because the previous motor
caught fire and did a lot of damage.

That's not what Paul told me. The original motor in "GO" was an early
factory attempt at a sustainer, famous as as "less than optimum".
Another owner of this particular design told me he sold the engine/prop
immediately as it was the best possible way to dispose of it ;-)
Anyway, the compact jets permitted Paul to retrofit the jets without
making much change to structure (mostly using existing cutout etc).

...There's another ASH25M here in Oz that has also suffered an engine
bay fire, coincidental or sign of a greater fault?

Absolutely coincidental. This engine bay fire was caused by use of
non fire-proof material in a high-temperature area; subsequently
rectified by the manufacturer (as usual without admitting any fault,
nor admitting there had in fact been other instances).
This time the pilot (a good friend of mine) was incredibly lucky.
During take-off, some-one in the tower noticed the fire and called
him on the radio. He aborted take-off, and again fortunately someone
at the airport had a fire-extinguisher handy and got to the plane
shortly after it stopped rolling, so the fire was extinguished promptly..
IIRC it took more than a year to get everything back to working order....

Hope that helps clarify,
Best Regards, Dave

A fuel hose was the "material" in the 25M Dave mentions. It is a possibility in any internal combustion sustainer or SLSP with non-fireproof fuel lines, and that list is long. The 25M (one I have many hours in, before and after) fire on the runway at Keepit inspired me to buy a Safecraft fire extinguisher system, and have it installed in the 26E by someone knowledgeable both about gliders and putting out fires, now also the Schleicher rep in USA.
The 25 at Keepit now has a Safecraft system. Believe that Paul's converted 25E and others in Australia had extinguishers installed after I sent info on the 26E install. Seem to remember Safecraft shipping 5 systems to Australia.
At the time of the fire, the pilot of the 25M had an extinguisher in the car, ran and got it. The glider was so badly damaged that it had to be shipped back to Poppenhausen.

From the fire on the runway at Keepit I gathered there are three ways to deal with a fire.
Best: put it out right away.
Third best: find an extinguisher and then put it out.
Second best: get out and let it burn up.

The second best is an option on the ground or at altitude, but if there's a fire on downwind you're not in a great position to get out.
Perhaps Paul was stuck in that scenario. Maybe the fire had spread outside the engine compartment before pulling the handle on the extinguisher.
Wish we could ask.
Jim

Was the hose involved in the fire the original rubber? On my 26E the progression has been from rubber lines protected by a thin jacket, to polyurethane lines protected by a thicker jacket, and on the Mi engine Aeroquip type stainless/teflon hose covered by a really thick jacket. Curious as to which version was involved in the fire.