Survival Rifle

" wrote in message
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snip

Yup, just love theidea of carrying black powder in my airplane... for
survival after a crash of course.



Well, it makes for a really quick starting fire that puts out a LOT of
smoke so it can be seen from the air. When you hear that airplane
go over your crash site you can "light a shuck" and put up a quick
smoke signal! :-)

Highflyer
Highflight Aviation Services
Pinckneyville Airport ( PJY )

Yup, just love theidea of carrying black powder in my airplane... for
survival after a crash of course.
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Dear John,

I think he was trying to say that carrying black powder would
contribute to the seriousness of the crash. Which I'm sure it would,
if this were a Hollywood Crash Scene, where a single hand grenade
produces grouts of flame, flips cars in the air and so forth :-)

For those who are interested, those marvelous effects are produced
with gasoline and common FLOUR, plus a couple of squibs (ie,
electrically actuated detonators). The sound is added during
editing.

My original post was to point-out the inherent BENEFITS of a cap &
ball pistol in a survival situation. The idea that the quarter-pound
or so of powder would somehow manage to go off on impact, thereby
contributing to the severity of the crash simply tells us the fellow
isn't familiar with blackpowder... which means he wouldn't be
carrying it to begin with.
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If you're familiar with commercially-built aircraft you may have seen
the attachment points for ballast weight, typically on the firewall
and stern-post, or up inside the nose-wheel well... The point here is
that try as they might, each airframe is a little bit different, and
that ballast weight is often needed to satisfy the certified weight &
balance. Homebuilders tend to be somewhat casual when it comes to
Weight & Balance but I've always thought the ballast points were the
ideal spot to attach an equal weight of TOOLS to the forward point and
SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT to the aft point. (You would not have both, of
course :-) Putting the survival gear in the aft ballast point simply
reflects the fact that the aft fuselage often survives a crash
virtually unscathed, making it an ideal place to stow a few ounces of
blackpowder, which is relatively insensitive to shock. Unless you're
in Hollywood, of course :-)

-R.S.Hoover