Fire extinguishers abound in type, size and firefighting agent. Avoid cheap dry chemical designs, far right, and CO2 bottles, center. Halon products, second from left, are recommended.

by Scott Dyer

It’s underneath the pilot seat or in some other out of the way, out-of-mind location. But when you sniff smoke in flight or you overprime your Lycoming and start a stack fire on the ramp in January, your fire extinguisher may be your best friend. Do you have one?

Perhaps you haven’t looked at it in years and what a shock it would be to have it fizzle when you need it most. Or to realize in the heat of battle that you have the wrong type of extinguisher. …