REFLECTOR: how hot is too hot?

[Tom]

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
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I wonder if anyone has dabbled with putting a small fan in the wheelpants themselves. Nascar uses marine bilge blowers
on rotors to help cool. If you cut the casing off of a small blower it should fit. Of course wiring it might be difficult. Tom