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Yes, I am aware of that all stainless steel braided lines have a rubber, Teflon or other polymer to actually provide the fluid sealing. However, there are stainless steel braided lines which are designed as brake lines - therefore, reasonable to assume their inner stuff can stand a bit of heat. In any case, I believe you would get some warning (mushy brakes/leaks, etc) from a failing/leaking stainless steel braided brake line. The aluminum line provided no warning until a second or so before it failed completely.
I'll stick with the stainless steel braided brake line - I replace the left aluminum tube brake line back several years ago when I accidentally drilled into the aluminum tube. Just wished I had taken the time to replace the right one as well.
Ed
----- Original Message ----- From: "David Carter" <dcarter@datarecall.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 6:08 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos
Re "stainless steel braided line", Ed: The stuff inside the "stainless
steel braid" ain't "steel" - it's rubber and/or teflon tubing - stuff that
will melt from heat soaking from hot calipers back into hose.
David
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 2:47 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos
No Marc,
The plans call for aluminum tubing all the way to the caliper fitting.
The
design does call for a "Loop" around the landing gear rod to provide for
the
aluminum line to flex as the caliper moves in and out - mine had this
loop.
However, giving the poor fatigue characteristics of Aluminum, I think a
flexible line is the only way to go. Stainless steel braided line has my
vote. However to be fair, Van has hundreds if not thousands of RVs
flying
with this set up. Bill, mentioned an RV-8 transiting Thailand having a
similar brake fire recently and I have heard of others - but not many.
Its
"too many" when it happens to you {:>)
Its a pretty helpless feeling to exit the side of the runway and only be
along for the ride {:>). My first schedule refueling stop was at
Gunntersville, Al which has its runway running out into a lake - sure glad
I
never got that far as you can imagine.
Ed
----- Original Message ----- From: <cardmarc@charter.net>
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 3:33 PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos
> Ed,
> Almost all certified installations have a flexible line section at the
> wheel to connect from the leg al tubing to the wheel brake puck assy.
Did
> you have that?
> Marc Wiese
>>
>> From: "Ed Anderson" <eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
>> Date: 2005/06/24 Fri AM 10:21:43 EDT
>> To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
>> Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos
>>
>> Yes, John - luck and a quick acting nephew {:>). The only answer I >> can
>> come up with is that the aluminum line suffered a fatigue fracture
which
>> weakened the tube and the hydraulic pressure finally blew out the
chunk.
>> The line has a loop to provide flexing as the caliper moves in and
out -
>> but, flexing aluminum is not know for a long life. In all fairness,
>> there are many RVs flying with this configuration - so the break might
be
>> attributed to my installation (stressing the line when I put the loop
in
>> it), material weakness, some damage I did not notice, etc. Had over
300
>> landings before the failure.
>>
>> Ed
>> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: John Slade
>> To: Rotary motors in aircraft
>> Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 9:09 AM
>> Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos
>>
>>
>> Wow, Ed!
>> You're luck the airplane wasn't consumed.
>> My question - how did that big chunk get blown out of the brake >> line?
>> Regards,
>> John
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Rotary motors in aircraft
>> [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net]On Behalf Of Ed Anderson
>> Sent: Friday, June 24, 2005 8:58 AM
>> To: Rotary motors in aircraft
>> Subject: [FlyRotary] Brake Line Incident Photos
>>
>>
>> For those interested (and may not have seen them) , here are a few
>> photos of my brake line fire incident.
>>
>> Big chunk got blown out of brake line as can be seen from
>> Brakelines.jpg photo. Effect of resin burning seen on wheel pant
photos.
>> Once the line broke, the next time I depressed the brake pedal, a
>> fireball from the wheel to over the wing resulted from spraying the
>> hydraulic fluid over the hot brake assembly. The flash point of the
>> fluid is only 240F! I am going to investigate some stuff with a bit
>> higher flash point {:>)
>>
>>
>> Ed
>>
>> Ed Anderson
>> Rv-6A N494BW Rotary Powered
>> Matthews, NC
>> eanderson@carolina.rr.com
>>
>
>>> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
>>> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html
>> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/
>> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html
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