Spoke with Ed today, he returned my call when he was done today...

He didn't get to mount the engine today due to non-aviation related issues, but plans on doing so in the morning. Turns out he is at Allen Parish (L42).. which is actually a pretty nice strip to be stranded at (fuel, power, somewhat attended - the County subsidizes or encourages a family to live on field, and they manage the ground power cart, keep an eye on things.. etc).. The Coushatta Casino in Kinder (15 miles away) supported several renovations a few years back, and as a result there is a long, paved runway, Jet A, Av Gas, and a hospitality building that is stocked.. and not just with soft drinks. I've made the gambling flight/run several times, but only once did the timing work out to where I knew I could drink.

Anyways, we discussed his failure modes and one thing that stuck in my mind was that he had both a brake fire as well as an engine issue. I had yet to get the whole story - if it was already on here, I missed it...

He plans to mount up things tomorrow, and he declined my offer to drive 3 hours and bring tools.. he ended up going to a John Deere dealer (tractors, for you city folk) to get "The Big Nut" off... of course, he let his very strong nephew loosen it up (or try to) a bit first before taking it to them.. I guess he didnt want to overstress their power tools (grin).

Without stealing any of the wind out of his sails (and leaving the story for him to tell when he gets back), I was told that his brake line was aluminum tubing that had a fatigue failure (which to me sounded like an inevitable event, given what I've heard about aluminum and high pressures/fatigue cycles).

So my question:
How common is aluminum tubing in brake lines from a "per plans" standpoint. Does anyone else agree or disagree with the notion that this may be asking for trouble? Ed has said that he has replaced the offending part with braided hoses, so the problem should not recur at the same location.

Also, i never realized that brake fluid was flammable.. I did not ask Ed what flavor he used.. but what are the specs with regards to flammability on the different types of fluid? If for some reason I have a loss of fluid on a hot caliper, I'd rather have a wet caliper, not a fireball. (yes.. ed had a fireball... but being a metal plane, tolerated the transient heat better than us plastic plane guys would have.). There was a ditch with some water conveniently next to the runway on the side opposite of the failed brake..

Anyways.. those are my questions.. tubing and fluid...
Any takers?

Dave