REFLECTOR:Brake selection.

[reflector@tvbf.org]

In a message dated 4/5/2004 6:48:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, gpoole@zeta.org.au writes:

> Have I got the general consensus right? ...and just how 
> successful has modifications been to keep heat from the 
> Matco's from affecting the main gear legs?

Greg, 

IMHO and in my experience heating of the gear legs is a non-issue as long as the proper pilot technique is used. IOW, simply don't ride the brakes! 

I don't think it is so much how hot you get the brakes it's how long you keep them hot and how much time the heat has to soak into the entire brake then wheel then axel then finally to the gear leg before. If the duration of the heat event is short then the disc will quickly radiate the heat away long before all those other parts can soak up enough to hurt the gear leg.

Riding a brake is a sure way to get the long term heat soak needed to hurt the gear leg. I always simply pumped the brakes. e.g. taxiing in a cross wind: hit the down wind brake for a few seconds and get turned away from the wind some then release the brake completely until the wind weather vanes you the back into the wind. Then stab the upwind brake hard for few seconds, repeat as needed. You end up doing a slightly curvy path along taxiway but your brakes stay nice and cool and it's nothing compared to the S turns tail dragger do to get to the runway.

Take off in a cross wind? Taxi to the far upwind side of the runway and start your take off run with about a 15 degree (or so) angle towards the downwind side of the runway. The wind will gradually point you back toward the upwind side. After a while you get pretty good at picking the amount of downwind angle to start your run with depending on the crosswind component and the width of the runway and you get to the point you can make a take off in a heavy cross wind without touching the brakes at all. Its fun to make the wind work for you! 

Of course your take off roll is one big curve. I should add  I did not do this so much for brake heating as I did it just to reduce my take off distance. As noted in the Velo POH riding a brake to fight a cross wind can really extend your take off roll. Plus if you are in a retract as I was you could just leave the gear down a bit longer after the take off roll to cool them off if you felt you got the hot. I would assume that even with wheel pants on the fixed gear versions there is still enough air circulating through there to prevent heat soaking the gear leg? So heating was not behind that technique at all.

Landing works the same way, land at a little bit of an angle across the runway and let the cross wind do the work for you. 

Every time I read an article in some magazine about how perfectly tracking a centerline on taxi way and runway indicates a sharp pilot I kind of grit my teeth. No matter what you are doing in life, flying, building, working in the garden anything- if you are *good* at it you effectively use *all* the resources at your disposal. 

If I can make the cross wind work for me I believe that makes me the better pilot than the guy who just mindlessly tracks the centerline and fights the wind and extends his take off roll and heats up his brake etc. I am letting the cross wind work *for* me and that other guy is *fighting* it tooth and nail all the way but he's the better pilot because he rode the centerline? Not in my world view. YMMV.

DM Rob