BGA Tech. News, Wheel brakes.

BGA Engineering News No. 30, May 2005
http://www.gliding.co.uk/bgainfo/tec...hnewsmay05.pdf has
a section on wheel brakes (at the end) which includes the following:

" If a glider was designed with a brake then it must have one fitted and
working.

" If the glider has a main skid and can be stopped by using the skid then
the wheel brake may be temporarily unserviceable provided it is recorded as
a deferred defect, notified to the pilot and rectified at the earliest
opportunity (i.e. within a day or so)."

When Lasham first bought new K13s and K8s, one of the first things we did
was to disconnect the wheel brakes.

With the K8 the wheel brake hardly worked, and the front skid worked very
well.

With the K13, the brake soon stopped working at all well, and again the
front skid works well.

I saw a K13 Tost wheel with the maker's tag attached. It said, roughly,
"This wheel has a brake which is too small, because there is not room to fit
one big enough. Do not use it unless you have to, you will need to adjust
it every time you use it hard."

Lasham is of course a large flat site, and the K8 and K13 finish on the
front skid even if the stick is held on the back stop during the ground run.

Most of Lasham's present fleet of K13s were built with a front wheel instead
of a skid, and have a disc brake which does work well.

Is it possible to change the Tost drum brake wheel on a K13 to a disc brake?
How much does it cost?

How many club operated K13s have a Tost drum wheel brake which works well?
Is it really unsafe to operate a K13 without a good wheel brake, relying on
the front skid?

Is it really unsafe to operate a K8 without a wheel brake?

How much flying have those who wrote this ruling done in skidded K13s and in
K8s?

I have twice tried to post this to u.r.a.s., but both times it disappeared
into cyberspace.

W.J. (Bill) Dean (U.K.).
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