Page 7 - Volume 18 Number 1

a Welcome
Sight
By Kevin Ware
A Twin Cessna’s closed-loop engine fire warning system is notorious for providing false alarms, and most of the time it’s hardly an adrenalin-releasing experience--but that depends on when and where it happens.
The red “left engine fire” light catches my attention by flickering a couple times, and then it stays ON. It seems unusually bright, even between the intermittent lightning visible out both side windows. A red flashing light of any sort in an airplane is never a welcome sight, but particularly so when 110-nm offshore at FL230 over the Gulf of Mexico, on a dark night. And also not welcome when it’s my stalwart and taciturn wife, Kari, who‘s the one pointing at the offending light.
Looking out at the left engine, all I can see is the pink/white hot glow of the turbocharger, down beneath upper cowling louvers; maybe it’s brighter than normal, maybe not? I really can’t tell. But, I can recall the memory-item checklist for an engine fire light in a Cessna 340, which is first to reduce power on the affected engine. So, I start pulling back the left throttle, fast enough to allay my fire light-induced anxiety, but hopefully slow enough to avoid sudden cooling and cracked cylinders, should this be a false alarm. I know this airplane won’t hold cabin pressure on one engine, but as the manifold pressure drops below 18 inches, I’m still surprised to see the cabin-altitude warning light come on as the cabin tops 10,000 feet. About this time, the engines de-synchronize, which
always makes it sound like something mechanical has gone seriously wrong. All this results in yet more finger pointing by Kari, who is now genuinely concerned.
We left Seattle yesterday to attend a meeting in Fort Lauderdale (KFXE), intending to make a flying winter vacation trip to the Caribbean afterward. In theory, a Cessna 340 should be able to make the Seattle- Florida trip in one day, but we’ve always divided it in two, most often making an overnight stop in Lafayette, Louisiana (KLFT). Usually, we finish the trip with a relatively-short 406-nm leg across the Gulf from Leeville, Louisiana (LEV), via Q102 to BAGGS intersection, just offshore of Venice, Florida, and from there on to the Atlantic coast.
JANUARY 2014 TWIN & TURBINE • 5