Van's Air Force
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Freezing Brakes
- Thread starter ksouthar
- Start date
AlexPeterson
Well Known Member
Keith,
I don't think there is anything you can do to eliminate it. I have taxied all the way out to takeoff without using any brakes and still had the problem. I suspect that there is enough friction to warm things up enough even when no brakes are applied. Others have suggested hitting the brakes just upon liftoff to shuck the water off, but I haven't found that to be effective. I don't know if taxiing in dust snow without wheel fairings will eliminate the problem or not. I think the only true solution is to plan to plop the plane on when landing. An A&P told me that most certified planes have the brake calipers in front for that reason, but I don't know if that is the case.
I don't think there is anything you can do to eliminate it. I have taxied all the way out to takeoff without using any brakes and still had the problem. I suspect that there is enough friction to warm things up enough even when no brakes are applied. Others have suggested hitting the brakes just upon liftoff to shuck the water off, but I haven't found that to be effective. I don't know if taxiing in dust snow without wheel fairings will eliminate the problem or not. I think the only true solution is to plan to plop the plane on when landing. An A&P told me that most certified planes have the brake calipers in front for that reason, but I don't know if that is the case.
rjcthree
Well Known Member
From a brake engineer . . . .
I do brake systems for a living, admittedly for heavy trucks, but once you get down to foundation brakes (the stuff turning inertia into heat), the rules generally apply universally. Freeze-up is a common heavy truck issue, as service brakes are also used for parking.
Well-burnished brakes will freeze up less 'strongly', and are less likely to freeze up. Once the cross hatching is gone from the rotor and the pad beds a bit, this will improve. The only way to get there is to use them. Brake dust is also your friend in this case.
No magic solution here, sorry. Drum or disc, it just is.
Rick 90432
(Product Mgr. ESP systems for Bendix CVS, Elyria, Ohio; BSME Akron 1993, P.E., Ohio.)
I do brake systems for a living, admittedly for heavy trucks, but once you get down to foundation brakes (the stuff turning inertia into heat), the rules generally apply universally. Freeze-up is a common heavy truck issue, as service brakes are also used for parking.
Well-burnished brakes will freeze up less 'strongly', and are less likely to freeze up. Once the cross hatching is gone from the rotor and the pad beds a bit, this will improve. The only way to get there is to use them. Brake dust is also your friend in this case.
No magic solution here, sorry. Drum or disc, it just is.
Rick 90432
(Product Mgr. ESP systems for Bendix CVS, Elyria, Ohio; BSME Akron 1993, P.E., Ohio.)
Steve Sampson
Well Known Member
Flying in slush
I used to do a lot of glider towing, and remember a day with lots of melting snow around. Every landing there would be a jolt, since everytime the discs had frozen to the calipers (I presume) between takeoff and landing, since I had the intervening time in the cooler air above. Since landing was on grass/snow/slush there was not a tyre wear problem. I mentioned it to others and their reaction was 'not much you can do about it', but were confident it would always free up. I have known it to happen occasionally since on my S'cub but come to largely ignore it.
Hope that is reassuring.
I used to do a lot of glider towing, and remember a day with lots of melting snow around. Every landing there would be a jolt, since everytime the discs had frozen to the calipers (I presume) between takeoff and landing, since I had the intervening time in the cooler air above. Since landing was on grass/snow/slush there was not a tyre wear problem. I mentioned it to others and their reaction was 'not much you can do about it', but were confident it would always free up. I have known it to happen occasionally since on my S'cub but come to largely ignore it.
Hope that is reassuring.
