Anyone who relies on the ineffectual brake fitted to most older gliders is an
optimist of note.

On the 4.00 X 4 hub common to these aircraft you have a couple of square
centimetres of friction material, with non energising shoes trying to stop
around 300 - 350kg of glider moving at anything up to 100km/h. Most are good for
one retardation only, at best, then they fade severely.

In my experience, with a lot of fettling work one can achieve a brake that is
reliably weak - which is a whole lot better than the alternative. But experience
indicates that one should still discount it ever working effectively in an
emergency.

You would be distressed to see how much damage you can cause at walking speed
with a 15m single seater. Just think what a 26m+ motorised uber bug smasher
could do with all it's inertia. (although they tend to have halfway decent disk
brakes these days)

In any case the man has it right - Don't point your glider at anything you
intend to keep, especially on a downhill. There is no need to provoke Murphy.

Mike Schumann wrote:
"never point the plane at anything valuable whilst expecting this brake to
stop it..."??????????
snip