After reading the whole thread, I'm surprised the what I thought was the major reason for pushing the stick while braking has been almost totally overlooked: to decrease the residual lift from the wings, thus getting MORE weight on the main gear.
In simple words: while it's true that UP elevator will tend to increase somewhat the apparent weight for reasons discussed at lenght before, it will also increase the incidence of the wing, while elevator full down will reduce the attitude by maybe a couple of degrees.
My point is: the spoilers DON'T kill ALL lift.
A portion of the wing is not influenced by them, and even in areas with spoilers extended above the wings, some lift is still generated on the lower surface, by pure angle of incidence.
So the question is: by pushing the stick (almost) fully forward, as I've done since now, what do get out of the balance?
More lift from the tail, or more-reduced lift from the wings?
See what I mean?
My feeling has always been that the net result from this equation is in favor of PUSHING, not of PULLING on the yoke.
This lift reduction on the wings by a pitch decrease is the key to this issue, and I'm really surprised nobody has given this the due attention.
Or have I missed something?
Try to visualize, Gentlemen, that we are talking about VERY POOR braking coefficient, so very little pitch moment generated by normal braking, very little compression of the nose oleo and so on...
Imagine the airplane slipping on pure ice, and trying to brake.
Pushing or pulling can change the pitch by how many degrees?
What's the difference in lift generated?
Here we need the math people!
But only after we have the right picture in mind!
LEM