Oh yes, I went off the runway at the Redmond fly in with a brake failure
a few weeks back <snip> Brake line failed (nylaflow) inside gear leg.
Tim Ong says there have been other failures and they are working on a fix.
Would have been disastrous on a short runway with heavy braking on touchdown
or a narrow runway with obstacles.
>>
No SH*T!
I have been saying it for 8 years and it is worth saying again. Aquarium
tubing has no business being used to stop a $350,000 airplane traveling at
100 MPH with four souls on board. If you lifted the hood of your SUV and
saw Nylaflow brake lines would you STILL hop in and take Billy and the twins
to the soccer match? Heck, cars even have triple redundant braking systems.
In our planes, the loss of EITHER brake will result in "El Pucker Grande".
A "fix" already exists and has existed since '95. D H Instruments hose assembly
# F3737-60
http://www.dhinstruments.com/prod1/ft.htm
"Oh but Brent, the DH lines are SO expensive!"
Builders have actually said this to me.
Gee, let me think, for the $200+ a set you would save you could buy 1/5 of
a panel mounted CD player, 85 gallons of Avgas, a pair of crappy headphones,
4 spark plugs or one set of tires. I guarantee you this, nothing else you
can buy for $200 will do you a damn bit of good as you reenact the "Evil
Kinievel Ceasars Palace Fountain Jump Landing" after a 10 year old chunk
of $0.11/foot plastic decides it doesn't want to keep doing something it
was never designed to do in the first place.
The flight isn't over until the plane has stopped and all the passengers
are safely out. "Stopped" is the operative word here, the one the FAA and
your insurance company will be most interested in.
Winter is coming and it is a good time to put the plane on jacks and install
something that will save your life at every landing.
Tim, Vern, Joe......you listening?
Regards
Brent Regan
BTW, I have absolutely no affiliation with D H Instruments.