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but I couldn't help but notice the left side of your helmet appears to be burnt worse than the right side. Now, the pictures of the airplane shown on this thread are only showing the right side of the airplane, which is obviously burned pretty badly. Was the left side as bad or worse than the pictures shown? Or was it just the airflow with the open canopy that caused the burns on the left side of the helmet?
Gary, The initial fire came in through the left side. I slipped it, left wing down, hard right rudder and that put the fire on the right side. When I hit, the right wing failed and caused the plane to swerve to the right, as can be seen in the runway picture. I didn't get a chance to turn off the master, ( didn't have time to run the shut down checklist) and since the fuel line burst, fuel kept pumping out and burning. I guess since the plane was at an angle, the wind, coming down the runway, pushed the fire to the right side. The bad thing about it was everyone was on the right side of the plane and no one saw me get out. I collapsed in the desert with my tan flight suit and was hard to see. The fire rescue was trying to rescue me from the plane. Luckily, Air Force personnel came to me from that side as that was toward the Air Force side of the airport. They waved the rescue guys over to me. As for the canopy being open, it was completely melted and I don't think I could have gotten out had it been closed. I would guess it would have been coved with oil and smoke and hard to see out of also.