Go-around - my first sighting

War stories after a lesson...if I remember the specs, the
Beechjet 400 brakes are rated for 7,000,000 foot pounds of
heat dissipation, which is more than one max weight landing
will generate. But [war story]; a number of years ago I was
flying a King Air 300 for a guy who just bought the airplane
and had hired a pilot who was not rated to fly the big King
Air. He was based out of Addison at Ft. Worth and I flew
down on the airlines to take them to Palm Springs to play
golf. While I was at Ft. Worth one of the mechanics, who
was doing a brake job on a Beechjet asked me if I was rated
in the Beechjet [he had heard so from somebody]. I said yes
and asked what he wanted to now.
He said he was doing the brake job and wanted to know about
breaking in the brakes. I told him that the procedure was
covered in the service manual and involved making several
medium speed runs on the runway and making firm brake
application. I said it was three runs at 30 kts to heat the
metallic linings and get them "cooked." I also said to be
sure and check the manual and be sure the pilot or mechanic
doing the runs be properly briefed, since the brake job [at
that time] was $16,000 in parts.
I got back two days later and taxied the King Air up to the
hanger and saw the Beechjet sitting on the ramp just back
from the break-in runs. But they had just winged it, 3 runs
at 80-90 knots. The right strut had already collapsed, the
tire blew out the fuse plugs and the brakes had caught on
fire. While I was just there, the left strut and fuse plug
blew and the left side caught fire. That brake job may have
cost a 1/4 million because they didn't bother to read the
manual RTFM.

Another time I was at OKC and taxied past an OK ANG C130
with a good size fire in the right mains. They had been
working in the pattern. I advised the tower and they told
the ANG crew which stopped and got out their fire equipment
while waiting for the airport fire dept. to arrive.

FAR 91 allows pilots do some brake work, be sure to do it by
the manual, a dragging brake can put you in the grass or
burn up the airplane.


--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P



"GS" wrote in message
...
| Jim Macklin wrote:
| A big issue is brake heat, you do need to give the
binders
| time to cool and the air flow while the gear is down and
| locked after take-off and on final helps a lot.
|
| you mean stopping a few hundred thousand pounds going 140
knots
| in 6000 feet generates heat???? ;-)
|
| Speaking of which, just read on the NTSB website that
there
| was yet another Cirrus that burned up from the brakes
during
| an extended taxi. There have been many of these. One of
| these was in my flying club. The plane was squawked for
| a dragging brake apparently MANY times and was signed off
| every time. And they supposedly rebuilt it "good as new."
| Hmmmm.....
|
| Gerald
|
|
|