On Saturday, 14 Mar 09, at approximately 10:23 AM local time, CAP Capt Tim Carey of the Prince William Composite Squadron Civil Air Patrol who was the designated pilot for Cadet Orientation Flights in support of our CAP Cadet Orientation ride program was taxiing southeast of the Tower on Taxiway A, when Capt Carey saw an experimental aircraft starting engine near one the hangar areas He discussed the light gray smoke trailing the pusher engine after it started with the cadets, thinking it was either exhaust smoke or condensation in high humidity.

As they pulled into the far southeast spot in the 34L run up area and began to perform his before takeoff checks - the experimental aircraft entered the run up area at least 100 feet away from the CAP aircraft. As Capt Carey turned the CAP aircraft around in the run up area, he looked over and saw the trail of gray smoke, then saw several flashes of fire along the right rear section of the rear engine mounted aircraft. He immediately noticed that the Gray smoke had increased significantly and a fire was visible.

At that time CAP Capt Carey immediately contacted the pilot and indicated "Experimental Aircraft in the run-up area, you are on fire, shut down and get out of the plane. Being this aircraft had the engine mounted behind the pilot; the pilot could not see that he was on fire. CAP Capt Carey immediately shut down his engine, instructed the cadets to stay in the plane, unstrapped himself, released the cockpit fire extinguisher, exited the door and ran toward the front right of the burning plane with his fire extinguisher. But upon reaching the plane on fire he realized his fire extinguisher was too small to be any use against the size of the growing fire. By this time, the pilot was getting out of the airplane and met me front right of the burning plane. The fire appeared to be moving forward of the engine along the fuselage and he said the plane was full of fuel. Realizing that there was nothing else to be done at this point, and Capt Carey returned to the CAP airplane, strapped in, and started engine and decided to move farther away from the aircraft on fire.

At approximately 10:30AM, a Dulles Aviation, Inc. pickup truck towing a flight-line fire extinguisher arrived and deployed the extinguisher hose, and doused the engine. At that time, Capt Carey and his two Prince William Composite Squadron cadets completed their pre-departure checks and were cleared by the Manassas Aircraft tower for an immediate departure.