On Sun, 09 Jun 2013 16:44:23 -0600, BobW
wrote:

[snip]
Having once owned a tail-dragging glider with "world's best brake" I can vouch
that having an "overly powerful" *and* easily modulatable brake is a wonderful
combination. (It was a hydraulically-actuated drum brake on a homebuilt HP-14.)

+1 on "easily modulatable". My first glass bird had a drum actuated by
a motorcycle squeeze grip on the stick, and its cable was pitifully
stretchy...by the time I got to a very moderate brake application, the
handle would hit the stick and stop. I finally found it was identical
to the one sold for the CLUTCH linkage on a 125cc Bultaco motorcycle.

I finally found a cable assembly that had larger gauge cable and a
stronger housing, and it worked pretty well.

Besides, if the barbed wire is coming up, putting the ship up on the
nose will be OK with me, thank you very much.