Brief Description: Fabricating and Match-drilling Belly Heat Shield
Tonight, I began to fabricate a heat sheild for the belly of the airplane, similar to what I've done for the firewall. This is made from thin stainless steel sheet and will contain a layer of fiberfrax insulation sandwiched in between the bottom skin and the SS sheet. This belly sheild will help to prevent an engine compartment fire in flight from melting through the underside of the fuselage (where my feet will be) before I can get on the ground. This has apparently occurred with other vans aircraft in the past, so I decided, like with the firewall, it's worth the small addition of weight and extra build time to have such protection.
