Hudson
25th Dec 2000, 16:56
Thought I might pass this along. B737-200. During walk-around between sectors or when taking over from previous crew, I always waved my hand over the brakes to gauge how hot they were. Some pilots were heavy on the brakes and you could often note that if a particular pilot was doing the landing then you could count on receiving hot brakes. All this in the South Pacific area with average OAT 26-30 deg C.
After I had landed at one Pacific atoll and wafted my hand carefully over the brakes area I noticed that the brakes of one main wheel were stone cold while its partner a few inches away on same axle was warmish. The aircraft had been out of scheduled servicing base some 3 days earlier meaning around 15 sectors. Mentioned this to the engineers who found that the brake lines had not been connected - hence cold brake. An abort with full braking would have been interesting.
Also found that when the local wind direction was at an angle to the fore and aft axis of the parked aircraft, the hot air flow downwards from the pack outlets under the fuselage area adjacent to the wheels would bathe the wheels with heat and reduce natural brake cooling. So the trick was to use the pack farthest away from the downwind wheel. This meant its hot air would have a further distance to travel (and hence dissipate) before reaching the wheel.
It definately worked
After I had landed at one Pacific atoll and wafted my hand carefully over the brakes area I noticed that the brakes of one main wheel were stone cold while its partner a few inches away on same axle was warmish. The aircraft had been out of scheduled servicing base some 3 days earlier meaning around 15 sectors. Mentioned this to the engineers who found that the brake lines had not been connected - hence cold brake. An abort with full braking would have been interesting.
Also found that when the local wind direction was at an angle to the fore and aft axis of the parked aircraft, the hot air flow downwards from the pack outlets under the fuselage area adjacent to the wheels would bathe the wheels with heat and reduce natural brake cooling. So the trick was to use the pack farthest away from the downwind wheel. This meant its hot air would have a further distance to travel (and hence dissipate) before reaching the wheel.
It definately worked