I mentioned to one of my relatives after the incident that I must  have a guardian angle looking over my shoulder - her retort was  "Yes, but you may be overworking her and she's not getting any younger!".    I know some folks feel I've had some bad luck, myself, I feel the luck was all "GOOD LUCK!".  Anytime anything want to break on the ground is just fine with me.
 
Seriously, I would not be able to convince myself to use aluminum in a brake line again.  Probably using aluminum tube down close to the caliper and then using stainless steel braided line for the flex portion would probably work fine - me?, I'm using stainless steel braided brake line all the way.   
Ed

    ----- Original Message -----
    *From:* David Carter <mailto:dcarter@datarecall.net>
    *To:* Rotary motors in aircraft <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
    *Sent:* Friday, June 24, 2005 6:01 PM
    *Subject:* [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos

    Hi, Ed.  "Hindsight" my hind foot!  Us aviators are ALWAYS
    "looking forward" . . . to preventing further occurances of
    preventable accidents (Air Force safety jargon?).
         Sincerely, you are "breaking new ground" in the area of brakes.
     (no double pun intended on breaking a brake line?)  I've always
    known I'd never use plastic brake line (many have, and have melted
    them and lost brakes during/after high speed taxi practice or hard
    braking on landing).
         You have just drawn a perfect conclusion from yet another "brink
    of disaster but saved by the grace of God" event (God MUST love
    you greatly!!):  Aluminum does have crummy fatigue life.  So maybe
    I'll get some automotive steel brake line to fit or adapt to my
    Cleveland aircraft brakes.
         David
         ----- Original Message -----
    *From:* Ed Anderson <mailto:eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
    *To:* Rotary motors in aircraft <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
    *Sent:* Friday, June 24, 2005 9:18 AM
    *Subject:* [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos

    David, it was aluminum tubing which is what's called for on the
    RV-6A brake system.  However, in hindsight - thinking about the
    low fatigue life of flexing aluminum, I think there are better
    choices.
         Ed

        ----- Original Message -----
        *From:* David Carter <mailto:dcarter@datarecall.net>
        *To:* Rotary motors in aircraft
        <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
        *Sent:* Friday, June 24, 2005 9:04 AM
        *Subject:* [FlyRotary] Re: Brake Line Incident Photos

        Ed, what kind of brake line was that?
                 David
                 ----- Original Message -----
        *From:* Ed Anderson <mailto:eanderson@carolina.rr.com>
        *To:* Rotary motors in aircraft
        <mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
        *Sent:* Friday, June 24, 2005 7:58 AM
        *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 <mailto:eanderson@carolina.rr.com>