JJflyer, i disagree that the use of thrust reverse does not contriubute to the cycle count and therefore the degredation of life of the engine. It does add to the cycle count - not a complete cycle but part of one. The use of thrust reverse is basically an engine transient, which depending upon how much reverse thrust is selected and for how long, can use up life. It is well proven that transients are a big contributer to engine life counts due to the thermal expansion, soak, mechanical forces etc that they produce compared to say an hour of normal cruise operation. This becomes even more important considering the alt above sea level that this transient occurs at.
The reason i had posted this message was to get the opinion of pilots as to the use of thrust reverse or brakes as recently i had read that some engine manufacturers were looking into recommending that the use of thrust reverse be limited to improve life usage on certain engines. Any comments?
cheers
stu