RyanShort1
Final Approach
So, I'm generally one to "listen" to whatever I'm hearing in the plane, and more often than not, there are warning signs, and it's genuinely a bad idea to ignore them.
Yesterday I had to relearn this lesson, this time with regard to brakes.
While I certainly haven't actively dismissed the possibility of someone's brakes locking up in a taildragger and them attributing their flipping it over on it's back on "a brake locked up," - I'll freely admit that most of the time I hear such stories I've thought "sure, yeah, you just don't want to admit that you dug your heels in a bit too much, too soon." and with a big chunk of suspicion. After yesterday, Saturday the 27th of May, 2023, I'll be a bit more charitable in my thoughts, at least until I know the full story.
So what happened? I flew about 2 hours with a student after lunch with a fuel stop after the first session doing a Luscombe checkout for a low-time owner for insurance and proficiency purposes and things were going OK from my perspective. After a stop for water and fuel we were taxiing after a landing on the a second flight when I heard a "pop" that was initially attributed to maybe just a bump on the taxiway. I did actually get out of the plane and physically looked at the right gear, and we function checked everything, however there was nothing visibly wrong and functions seemed normal, so we kept going. On the last takeoff (not the last planned takeoff) we heard a squeal that I don't usually hear and I made the decision that if there was something wrong, I'd rather land at home base where we have grass instead of the big concrete runway we had just been working on. We flew back to home base and I three pointed it in the grass as gently as I could. I thought I felt some dragging, but I just knew I had to get her stopped, and we did just that. I got her turned around and then about 20 feet after we'd exited the runway, the right brake completely locked up and after a couple of function tests I knew we just had to shut her down and get out.
Here are the two videos I took afterwards:
The first is before we figured out what was wrong.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsxEZHShxrF/
The second was after we jacked up the plane and got the tire off to see if we could free it from whatever was obstructing it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsxFShdAKNI/
Needless to say, I'm VERY, VERY glad that it didn't lock up on landing like it did on taxi, and I'm grateful that in my opinion, I was Providentially given just enough room to not seriously damage anything. As for other lessons, in my opinion, this is 100% a situation where I'd vastly prefer to three point a plane in as softly as possible, and a good reason to stay proficient at three points even if you prefer wheel landings.
Now to find the parts for my A&P and get her back in the air...
Yesterday I had to relearn this lesson, this time with regard to brakes.
While I certainly haven't actively dismissed the possibility of someone's brakes locking up in a taildragger and them attributing their flipping it over on it's back on "a brake locked up," - I'll freely admit that most of the time I hear such stories I've thought "sure, yeah, you just don't want to admit that you dug your heels in a bit too much, too soon." and with a big chunk of suspicion. After yesterday, Saturday the 27th of May, 2023, I'll be a bit more charitable in my thoughts, at least until I know the full story.
So what happened? I flew about 2 hours with a student after lunch with a fuel stop after the first session doing a Luscombe checkout for a low-time owner for insurance and proficiency purposes and things were going OK from my perspective. After a stop for water and fuel we were taxiing after a landing on the a second flight when I heard a "pop" that was initially attributed to maybe just a bump on the taxiway. I did actually get out of the plane and physically looked at the right gear, and we function checked everything, however there was nothing visibly wrong and functions seemed normal, so we kept going. On the last takeoff (not the last planned takeoff) we heard a squeal that I don't usually hear and I made the decision that if there was something wrong, I'd rather land at home base where we have grass instead of the big concrete runway we had just been working on. We flew back to home base and I three pointed it in the grass as gently as I could. I thought I felt some dragging, but I just knew I had to get her stopped, and we did just that. I got her turned around and then about 20 feet after we'd exited the runway, the right brake completely locked up and after a couple of function tests I knew we just had to shut her down and get out.
Here are the two videos I took afterwards:
The first is before we figured out what was wrong.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsxEZHShxrF/
The second was after we jacked up the plane and got the tire off to see if we could free it from whatever was obstructing it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CsxFShdAKNI/
Needless to say, I'm VERY, VERY glad that it didn't lock up on landing like it did on taxi, and I'm grateful that in my opinion, I was Providentially given just enough room to not seriously damage anything. As for other lessons, in my opinion, this is 100% a situation where I'd vastly prefer to three point a plane in as softly as possible, and a good reason to stay proficient at three points even if you prefer wheel landings.
Now to find the parts for my A&P and get her back in the air...
