Tail wheel Pilots: 3 point or wheel landings?

Another Cub oddity.
In the early J3's the brake pedal reached from under the base of the front seat until almost the outside wall of the plane on both sides. Very easy to use.
But: In 1942 or 43, the CAA forced Piper to shorten the length of the brake pedals considerably. On one of our Cubs the pedals barely sticks out past the front seat cushion at all.
It was a mandatory safety upgrade.
Now for anyone who has ever flown a Cub with original brakes this next part is going to sound totally unbelievable.
The CAA claimed that students were landing the planes with their feet on the brake pedals thereby causing the planes to go up on their noses.
Seriously.
The brakes on a Cub causing a nose over.
So they put short brake pedals on Cubs.
And ground loops increased exponentially, because the pilots couldn't find the brake pedals. Or only found one or the other pedal.
To this day, the Cub with the short pedals is involved in ground loops, the Cubs with the long pedals, not so much.
Just a little tidbit from aviation history.
 
The Cub pedal length wasn’t changed. The entire master cylinder were moved inboard. Same pedal and master cylinder, simply moved. I prefer the inboard location as the pedals are indeed in the way with outboard location. I learned to fly in and own a Cub and have worked on them since I was a kid. I’ve seen my dad lock the breaks and sitting still raise and lower the tail off and on the ground with power and forward stick without moving. I’ve done it...just never when dad was around at risk of getting skinned alive.

Properly maintained Cub brakes will indeed lock the brakes and put a Cub on its back. The problem is since their use isn’t much needed other than run-up and tight turns, folks tend to not maintain them. They need fluid topped off frequently and with the master cylinder under the laces on seat bottom canvas are a pain to access so they don’t get serviced. So, the fluid gets low and the brakes quit being effective. Also, good brakes accelerates the wear of the $300+ each tires (tubes are $130). Last set I bought new in 2011 was $840, but hey shipping was free. I was happy they were in stock. Frequently, they are sold out pending the only supplier, Goodyear, to make another run.

Parts are much more expensive and/or hard to find, consequently brakes aren’t properly maintained. Running worn out shoes (six per side at $60+ each) causes the expanded tube to leak due to forcing to expand beyond design limits, rendering it unserviceable. When you can find one, most likely used, they are a time consuming PITA to change, bleed and return to service. Result, folks don’t maintain them.

I’ve owned and flown Cubs for many years and have had my share of poor brakes at times and thought they were lousy too. I finally took time to learn to set them up properly and keep the fluid topped off and bled. If I get a soft brake, I take five minutes and bleed it from bottom up and the brakes are quite effective. My brakes will hold for run-up without undue standing on the brakes and if stepped on clumsily, will lift the tail during roll out.

Bad Cub brakes are poor maintenance and running worn out parts. The biggest advantage of the Grove disc brake conversion is 1) effective brakes with little maintenance, 2) retains original 8.00x4 wheels/tires and 3) lots of folks converting and selling their serviceable brakes. I just bought a full set of wheels, brakes and like new tires/tubes for $500 from a guy who converted. It was a bargain. I have sufficient brake parts cached to keep three Cubs, mine my brothers and our other brother (from another mother), flying for the rest of our flying lives. The next caretaker can convert it to Groves...so long as they leave the master cylinders at the in board location.


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