REFLECTOR: how hot is too hot?

[Tom]

Doug, here's a link to a cheap infrared thermometer. Save your fingers! 
One other hot rotor cause is hard braking on landing, try not to sit 
fully on the brakes after pulling off runway. When the pad is in 
constant contact with the hot rotor it not only loses a cooling avenue 
but transfers more heat toward the gear leg. If you're stuck waiting for 
ground control, try sitting still with one brake only and alternate the 
sides.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93984

I put my wheel pants back on to protect my prop from FOD, and now, of course, the rotors are getting hotter after taxiing. I've got a NACA scoop on the pants that blows air past the rotors, and I've got vents on the top of the pants to let the hot air escape when the plane is parked. I also loosened up my bellvile washer a little to make it easier to steer, and that seems to have helped the rotor temperature.

After the horror stories I've heard, since I started flying this Velocity I've been worried about the rotors getting too hot and softening the gear legs. I've got fiberfrax and foil tape around the left gear leg and just foil tape around the right gear leg (because there wasn't room for the fiberfrax.) I routinely touch the rotors soon after I park to see how hot they're getting. They were normally never to hot too touch. With the wheel pants they are hotter, but after loosening the Bellville washer I don't burn my finger when I touch them. I think the threshold for heat pain on your fingers is around 120 fahrenheit.

My question is, "How hot have the rotors been for people who have had gear leg problems?"  Didn't I read once where someone's rotors were actually glowing red? If my rotors don't get over 150 F I don't think I've got anything to worry about.

Doug Holub