Locked Right brake

[Yellow Duck]

At our recent Gumbo Fly-In, I had a little incident that could have resulted into soomething very serious.

I was giving rides in the duck, and on this one flight with one of my grand son's as I was nearing where I wanted to stop (wasn't going fast) I applied both brakes,as I released them the aircraft made an immediate 90 deg right turn and I then applied both brakes, stopping only a few feet from people and another aircraft.

after checking to see what the problem was, we noticed no return spring on the right side. I thought it may have broken or fallen off. However, today when I prepared to replace the spring, there was no hole to hook the spring into the part that articulate back and forth for that side. I removed it drilled the required hole and attached a new spring on each side. Works as it is suppose to now.

Vic, I purchased an extra set for you. When you come down with the Pacer, I'll give them to you.

Accidents happens very quickly. Could have been really bad day.

Lee
Yellow Duck

[braceville]

Brakes

Lee
When you say there was no hole to put the spring in where are you talking about? I'm in the middle of redoing brakes on the Chipmuk and any chance of getting a picture of what you are talking about?

[Robert Lees]

A good thing you rescued the situation, Lee, well done. And a good thing you discovered the cause of the problem. It would appear to me that there was a manufacturing fault with the "horseshoe" in not having a hole for the spring to pass through.

I post another photo from the "Gear-Leg House of Horrors". We found this problem (possibly a MANUFACTURING FAULT) this very morning after removing the brakes of our 1945 BC12D for re-lining and cleaning. The welded cluster at the stub axle is cracked through the upper half (yes, the upper half) of the available circumference of the assembly. Only found after removal of oil, dirt, grease, etc, it was noticed that the paint was cracked. And I hate cracked paint.

I stress that you cannot easily see this potentially catastrophic failure without removing the brake backplate.
I post one photo here for reference to give an idea of the problem, a few others are viewable at http://www.Taylorcraft.org.uk/BRPX-gear-leg-cracks.htm All are taken after removal of residual dirt, grease, further paint etc for a full examination.

The stub axle moved when flexed, so the break was not far from complete failure. I feel that we are all very lucky to have found this in the hangar, rather than landing in some far-away place when the wheel and axle might have broken away, you can imagine the ensuing scenario. Please have a look at yours, we think this is a manufacturing fault (1945). The cracked weld (and to all appearances original) seems to "bridge" the gap between the gear legs and the backplate ring, rather than penetrate and fill the gap.

I will let you know how the repair scheme progresses, and any further discoveries made.

Rob

[Yellow Duck]

Spring Return (Dan)

Dan here are photos of the spring hope you can see where they are attached
Lee

[Victor Gisclair]

New Plane

Here is a picture taken by the Duck of my new plane

[Victor Gisclair]

New Plane

Lets try again!!

[Victor Gisclair]

New PA 22/20

I am going to try again. I may get this picture thing yet. Never give up.

[Victor Gisclair]

Help

What am I doing wrong this picture is only 52KB

[Yellow Duck]

Vic

How did you do it, I never could. Tell me the secert.

[Victor Gisclair]

Picture

Lee,
I am on a Mac over here. I used GraphicConverter. I when to picture in the menu, then size and then scale. I set it as follows.

650 pixel
488 pixel

Width 9 inches
Height 6.8 inchs

X- Resulution 72
Y- Resolution 72

I then when to save as and then options and set the Quality to 70. Go lto preferrence and make sure the greate preview is not checked. then save as a jpeg.

I hope this works for you. I got the setting off one of the pictures that was posted.

[braceville]

pic's

Lee if you use IBM type, XP has a reducer in the my photo part. Right click then pick send to mail recep. while it is in that mode open the reduced picture and save it to your desk top so that it will be that small size when you go to browse for it. hope that help and not confused you. Dan

[Yellow Duck]

Picture

Vic, Dan I have tried all you two have said. Doesn't work for me. I'll figure it out yet. In the mean time I wll attempt putting one here.

[TimHicks]

Photo problem

Victor, Something is still horribly wrong with the way your picture is posting. Perhaps it is because you're using a Mac, but it makes your Tcraft look like a Piper. Please try to fix this as soon as possible. ;-)

I'm sorry that I couldn't make it down on Sunday. I didn't even go to Lockport. I hope to see your new ship soon.

Tim