BGA Tech. News, Wheel brakes.

I don't think there is any need for concern here for
several reasons. This is nothing new, just a re-statement
of something that has been the rule for some time.
Like many other rules set by the BGA it can be safely
ignored, they don't have the bottle to enforce it.
There are far worse things that go on that they are
selectively blind to so why shoud this be a burning
issue. The wheel brake on my ASW 17 will stop the wheel
turning if operated in the workshop, very useful, pity
it does not retard the glider at all on the ground
run, not that I would want it to as with no nose wheel
an effective brake is not a good idea. I would hasten
to add that the brake 'works' as it was designed to
do.
My club has a K13 and I have never seen it with a wheel
brake and I cannot think why anyone would fit one.
I would like to see the BGA justify that having a wheel
brake is an airworthiness issue when they ignore so
many other more dubious practices.


At 23:30 13 May 2005, W.J. \bill\ Dean \u.K.\. wrote:
BGA Engineering News No. 30, May 2005
http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/tec...rs/technewsmay
05.pdf has
a section on wheel brakes (at the end) which includes
the following:

' If a glider was designed with a brake then it must
have one fitted and
working.

' If the glider has a main skid and can be stopped
by using the skid then
the wheel brake may be temporarily unserviceable provided
it is recorded as
a deferred defect, notified to the pilot and rectified
at the earliest
opportunity (i.e. within a day or so).'

When Lasham first bought new K13s and K8s, one of the
first things we did
was to disconnect the wheel brakes.

With the K8 the wheel brake hardly worked, and the
front skid worked very
well.

With the K13, the brake soon stopped working at all
well, and again the
front skid works well.

I saw a K13 Tost wheel with the maker's tag attached.
It said, roughly,
'This wheel has a brake which is too small, because
there is not room to fit
one big enough. Do not use it unless you have to,
you will need to adjust
it every time you use it hard.'

Lasham is of course a large flat site, and the K8 and
K13 finish on the
front skid even if the stick is held on the back stop
during the ground run.

Most of Lasham's present fleet of K13s were built with
a front wheel instead
of a skid, and have a disc brake which does work well.

Is it possible to change the Tost drum brake wheel
on a K13 to a disc brake?
How much does it cost?

How many club operated K13s have a Tost drum wheel
brake which works well?
Is it really unsafe to operate a K13 without a good
wheel brake, relying on
the front skid?

Is it really unsafe to operate a K8 without a wheel
brake?

How much flying have those who wrote this ruling done
in skidded K13s and in
K8s?

I have twice tried to post this to u.r.a.s., but both
times it disappeared
into cyberspace.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
Remove 'ic' to reply.