Yes its hydraulic (Single Cylinder)... so yes, it could definitely
still fail.

The whole system is much simpler (And lighter, by about 8 lbs) than
the toe-brake system though, and according to my mechanic at least,
its basically bullet-proof...

This is simply according to him - but apparently fried right wheels/
brakes are a reasonably common (especially on Grummans and training
aircraft)... he attributes it simply to the subconscious dragging on
takeoff/taxi... At the very least, the right pads wear faster than the
left on most planes he looks at, even with experienced pilots.

The only planes he doesn't see it on are the few that don't have toe
brakes. That was enough for me... (Disclaimer, I am a young, low-time
pilot with ABSOLUTELY no experience in this matter, other than I
learned in a few toe-brake planes before I bought 61J, and I adapted
to no toe-brakes in about 5 minutes...)

I do tend to trust the opinion of a mechanic who tells me not to give
him money for things though...

-Scott


Thanks.

Eight pounds is quite a weight saving, especially since Pipers have very
positive nose wheel steering, so the toe brakes provide only dedundancy. My
personal prejudice favors the greatest theoretical redundancy, meaning nose
wheel steering plus toe brakes, but I don't have the experience either--so
it is just opinion, and worth slightly less than you paid for it.

BTW, the Gruman Cheetah and Tiger models, and many of the newer training
aircraft, have castoring nosewheels--so steering is accomplished by
differential braking until the rudder becomes effective. That should cause
them to have faster right side brake wear than Cessna trainers, which have
spring steering which allows the nose wheel to lock straight ahead in flight
and which can become a little problematic; especially if the nose strut and
the springs are not maintained.

Peter