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Mechanical Brakes

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Posted

I have mechanical brakes on my Skyraider that Im building,wish I had hydraulics but its not in the budget right now, maybe later. You have to push them down a long ways before they seem to hold is this normal? I dont have it running yet but just someone pushing me in the shop you have to lay on them pretty hard.I would bet that they will slow you down but might not have much emergency stopping if you needed it.If there is a better shoe to get I would be able to do something like that for now or is this just how they are.Thanks Randy

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Posted

I have mechanical brakes on my Skyraider that Im building,wish I had hydraulics but its not in the budget right now, maybe later. You have to push them down a long ways before they seem to hold is this normal? I dont have it running yet but just someone pushing me in the shop you have to lay on them pretty hard.I wo bet that they will slow you down but might not have much emergency stopping if you needed it.If there is a better shoe to get I would be able to do something like that for now or is this just how they are.Thanks Randy

If these are Azusa rims, Wicks aircraft has a hydraulic conversion set that starts at about $350 but then you add the rest of the pieces. The thing that has always interested me about thesebrake pads is the harder it is the more pressure you haveto use to stop the wheel, these were built to stop really short wheels on go karts , I wonder if changing to a softer pad material such as tire tread might do us a better job.

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Posted

If these are Azusa rims, Wicks aircraft has a hydraulic conversion set that starts at about $350 but then you add the rest of the pieces. The thing that has always interested me about thesebrake pads is the harder it is the more pressure you haveto use to stop the wheel, these were built to stop really short wheels on go karts , I wonder if changing to a softer pad material such as tire tread might do us a better job.

Yes they are Azusa rims,thanks for the info,I will go ahead and give them a try but if they dont work properly then I will try something else.Thanks Randy

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I flew a buddies Avid "A" with the drum mechanical brakes.. You may as well just cut a hole in the floor boars and do a lil Fred and Barney routine to stop. If the plane ever starts to get away from you on the ground, you are going for a ride and wont be able to hold it inline with the brakes!

I have dealt with the crappy brakes on my plane for a couple years because I spend very little time on wheels, its either floats or ski's for the most part. After my last incident where I came real close to wadding it up in the trees on a narrow runway because the tail wheel unlocked on me and I could not hold it with the brakes, I ordered up better rudder pedals and masters.

If you want them, I will send you the stock rudder pedals and the MC-1 masters that I have and you can have them. You would still need the calipers but it will be a good head start for you and they are 1000 times better than the mechanical ones!

You can re-thread the rods on the masters and drop the mounting tabs on the pedals down and get better breaking action as that is what AKFLYERBOB did on his KF. I just didnt want to spend the time to do that on mine (ok I was feeling too lazy and time at home is at a premium for me right now) :lol:

Let me know if you want them as I should be doing the swap when I get home in a few weeks.

:BC:

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I flew a buddies Avid "A" with the drum mechanical brakes.. You may as well just cut a hole in the floor boars and do a lil Fred and Barney routine to stop. If the plane ever starts to get away from you on the ground, you are going for a ride and wont be able to hold it inline with the brakes!

I have dealt with the crappy brakes on my plane for a couple years because I spend very little time on wheels, its either floats or ski's for the most part. After my last incident where I came real close to wadding it up in the trees on a narrow runway because the tail wheel unlocked on me and I could not hold it with the brakes, I ordered up better rudder pedals and masters.

If you want them, I will send you the stock rudder pedals and the MC-1 masters that I have and you can have them. You would still need the calipers but it will be a good head start for you and they are 1000 times better than the mechanical ones!

You can re-thread the rods on the masters and drop the mounting tabs on the pedals down and get better breaking action as that is what AKFLYERBOB did on his KF. I just didnt want to spend the time to do that on mine (ok I was feeling too lazy and time at home is at a premium for me right now) :lol:

Let me know if you want them as I should be doing the swap when I get home in a few weeks.

:BC: Thanks for the offer Leni,what I will probably do is fly the 40 hours off with these pieces of crap and just budget a set of new hydraulics.We have a nice big runway here in St Maries so hopefully I wont have to lay hard on them.I dont even see why they work at all with the little drum they have.It looks like a feeler gauge rolled into a circle.Dont see how they would hold even during run-up.Thanks Randy

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I flew for about 60 hours on my mechanical ones...doable but really limits what you can do. No way I would try an off airport landing with the old set up. You have to just let it roll out when you land. I do that on pavement and big runways anyways but if your trying to do any kind of short field work forget it. I had mine adjusted so that they were just slightly dragging all the time that way the pedals required the least amount of movement as possible.

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Posted (edited)

I have mechanical brakes on my Skyraider that Im building,wish I had hydraulics but its not in the budget right now, maybe later. You have to push them down a long ways before they seem to hold is this normal? I dont have it running yet but just someone pushing me in the shop you have to lay on them pretty hard.I wo bet that they will slow you down but might not have much emergency stopping if you needed it.If there is a better shoe to get I would be able to do something like that for now or is this just how they are.Thanks Randy

 

 

If these are Azusa rims, Wicks aircraft has a hydraulic conversion set that starts at about $350 but then you add the rest of the pieces. The thing that has always interested me about thesebrake pads is the harder it is the more pressure you haveto use to stop the wheel, these were built to stop really short wheels on go karts , I wonder if changing to a softer pad material such as tire tread might do us a better job.

RE: Softer Mechanical Brake Pad Material:

I just came across this and it seems a genius of an idea.  The entire mechanical brake assembly is about 1/2 the weight of a Matco setup for example; not to mention that mechanical brakes are far simpler and easier to maintain.  I'm going to be looking into this.  I got a notion to cut diagonal slices into the brake pads in my B with the (hope) of creating more friction.  Tire tread like material eg. the stuff used on conveyor belts is another idea for a softer more grippy pad as Randy points out.  I'm just not totally convinced yet that the mechanical brakes can't be improved upon in of themselves rather than a total makeover.

Edited by allonsye
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