When I worked at the radio shop on the airport, we had a customer that had some trouble getting his little airplane started. It kicked back through the carburetor and caught the fuel in the intake manifold on fire, and the fabric fresh air hose to the carb started burning. The smoke, started coming out of the cowling air holes, so that is where he emptied his dry chemical extinguisher, despite my yells not to. Ever see what that dry chemical can do to aluminum when it gets wet? A half second blast of halon, (this was back in the 80's) up the bottom of the cowling and it was all over. It cost the guy two days wages to get his engine comptartment cleaned out before he could leave.
Personally I think it was silly to outlaw halon for fire extinguishing purposes. How much did they use in one year that way? Not much I'll bet.
TW
