On 2005-08-16, Deborah McFarland wrote:
I like my heel brakes. I guess it takes a real woman to handle them ;-).

You know it's not really heel brakes that I find a problem. I otherwise
love flying the Auster we use for towing gliders. However, it has a free
castoring tailwheel. Our runway is hard surfaced. In a quartering
tailwheel, you must use the brakes for directional control since the
rudder is totally ineffective, and the tailwheel is free castoring.

However, it's not just that they are heel brakes (which makes depressing
the rudder pedal fully and applying braking more difficult) but the fact
they are connected to cable operated drum brakes whose effectiveness
varies from minute to minute. On a hard sufaced runway or taxiway, when
taxiing (and because the brakes are so ineffective and being a
taildragger, forward visibility isn't so hot, you must taxi slowly and
with low enough power there is insufficient prop wash over the rudder)
you have to inevitably accept you will need to do one or two 360 degree
turns if you make too big an S-turn when trying to see forward.

On grass it's less of a problem. The drag of the grass means you need a
touch more power (more prop wash over the tail) and makes the aircraft
track more straight anyhow. It's probably the only way anyone found that
terrible braking system adequate!

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"