Eric Greenwell wrote:
Don Johnstone wrote:

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.


A friend of mine fitted his ASW 17 with a Cessna wheel and disk brake.
It was very effective, and did not put the glider on it's nose. If I
needed to use the brake hard enough to put a glider on it's nose, I'd
gladly trade a scratched nose for running into something hard or expensive!


Just be careful. I decided to make the Tost "Liliput" (you know why they called
it that, don't you) wheel work on my Standard Cirrus. The amount of play and
tiny components can make life exciting though. My approach was to methodically
adjust the actuating lever on successive flights. Landing on a 1435m tar runway
meant there was no risk of hitting anything, so it should have been safe to
experiment. I went from having no effective retardation to a locked wheel and
one of those expensive white stripes on the tar in one adjustment...

Having now taken a close look, the bush on the actuator is worn, and the
floating attachments move. I could fit a new wheel and have very little
improvement - even purchased a new brake assembly, then discovered that they
changed the bolt pattern for the locating arm. Currently the new brake is
gathering dust and I simply ensure I don't point it at anything I may want to
keep on the ground run...

One of those Cleveland disk brake sets is looking better by the day.
--
Bruce Greeff
Std Cirrus #57
I'm no-T at the address above.
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