Behavior modification or RV-8 brake geometry?

[humptybump]

The weather this year has been unusually gusty and variable. The result is dance moves on the peddles like Travolta in the 1970's (or Swayze in the 80's).

I have aborted a few take offs - not because of wind excursions, but because I'm dragging the brakes.

What behavioral tricks have pilots used to break bad brake habits ?

 

[panhandler1956]

Me too

I'd love to hear how the experienced guys do this.
I have my extensions and return springs installed and I still tend to get into the brakes too early. I'm short in stature so I have lots of seat cushion under me which makes the geometry worse for me (I'm higher up relative to the pedals). I have to force myself to keep my heels down on the floor, which does help.

Look forward to hearing what others do.

 

[Randy Hooper]

I have had takeoffs and landings in some pretty sporty crosswinds and have been impressed as to how well the airplane behaves. Proper aileron input and then elevator back when tail is on the ground goes a long way in crosswind control. I'm not saying that others aren't doing this. It's that I pay attention to these items and my airplane treats me well.

 

[Ironflight]

What behavioral tricks have pilots used to break bad brake habits ?

Heels on the floor Glen! With the standard RV-8 pedals, it is easy to get brakes when you don't want them if you have you feet "floating" - almost anyplace you push will give you braking. If your feet are on the floor and you have your toes on the bottom of the pedals, you should be able to get the rudder travel you need without accidentally adding brake. If you need brake because the rudder alone won't give you what you need, then slide your feet up.

I have flown my -8 for years with the pedal extensions made popular by Randy Lervold back around -04. I liked them mostly because I could get rudder pedal action (without brakes) even if my feet were pulled back a bit. Others don't like them because it can make it harder to get up on the brakes when you need them. We recently removed them from the Val, and went back to standard pedals, because the extensions just didn't work well for a smaller foot, like Louise's. Since I can fly an -8 with or without them, and it helped her to not have them removing them was a no-brainer. But they CAN help if you just can't seem to stay off the brakes - just beware that they are not perfect, and you'll have to change your behavior for them as well.

I seem to fly a lot of different airplanes with lots of different pedal geometries - it pays to really look at the pedals to determine how they are going to work when you press in different places. Understanding the geometry will help to prevent surprises when those cross-winds hit you.

Paul

 

[humptybump]

Paul, Randy, (and all the readers who decided I was a problem child) ...

as I suspected, I just need some good old behavior modification

I'm not 100% but I have added "heals on the floor!" to my pre-take-off check. It will become natural after a month or so.

 

[DEWATSON]

brakes

I'll "what they said" about heels on the floor. To fly an 8 properly, your heels should be on the floor all of the time except when parking, taxiing and rolling out after landing with a treacherous crosswind.

 

[Neal@F14]

I put 70+ hours on my friend's RV-8 in two years and after the very beginning of getting used to the plane at all, I never really had any more issues of catching myself riding the brakes. I found the -8's pedal design to be easier to not inadvertently ride the brakes by.... keeping my heels on the floor.

Now my new RV-6 is a different story, I'm having big-time issues with riding the brakes on this plane. I like the rudder pedals of the -8 much better. I guess I need to buy a set of pedal extensions from JD Air.