|
Message
Todd, As best I know, Van supplies the same
rotor/wheel/brake kit on all his models and have since .. well, back before my
kit purchase in 1992. This is an independent upgrade offered as a kit
by Cleveland brakes and sold by (at least) Aircraft Spruce for around $300
USD. Since the rotor can be had for around $150, I couldn't see paying the
$300
but then I found out the 1/8" shim cost $84.00 each which
could have made the spruce kit look like a deal. But for $168 USD I
figured I could take 30 minutes or so to make two of them {:>).
When I had the older tires (forget the brand but they were
provided with the kit), I could not lock them up although I did leave 300 ft of
rubber from an aborted take off. I now have the Michelins and had not been
able to leave rubber from hard braking (don't know what that says but that was
before the new rotor) Now, I have not tried to leave rubber with the new
rotor, but they do appear to maintain steady braking action even when
heated - the old ones would fade at that point. I suspect that
if you have a tail dragger, it might be best to stay with Van's stock - as you
don't want to end up on your nose. But, with a training wheel up front,
you can reallllllyyyyy get on the binders hard without worry.
The new high energy brakes get their 40% greater stopping
power apparently from the thicker rotor dissipating the heat from the pads
better and less warping and wobbling of the rotor plate under
pressure.
ED
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 3:15
PM
Subject: [FlyRotary] Ed's High Energy
Brakes
Hi Ed;
I'm curious about your brake upgrade. Is
this an upgrade over Van's currently supplied brake kits, or is it an upgrade
from an older supplied kit to the newer kits? Reason I ask is that with my
previous brake/tire combination, I always had enough brake power to lock up
the tires on pavement, so this was the limiting factor in stopping distance.
But with the new Condor tires I don't seem to be able to brake hard enough to
lock them up and stopping distance seems slightly improved (no actual
measurements were taken). So I'm wondering if I could benefit from a brake
upgrade.
I also wonder if the Condors are just
gripping better because the surface is new or if it had anything to do with
the temps. While it was -15C, the runway was reported to be 80% bare &
dry, so surface friction wasn't a problem.
Last spring when I was at the Murphy
Aircraft factory, I spied in their machine shop a stack of brake parts. I
asked about them and it turns out that they make all their own based on the
Cleveland brake design, improved in several ways. They were machined aluminium
callipers rather than cast steel, so really looked good. They claimed that
they would directly replace the Cleveland brakes that Van's
sells.
I'd like to improve on my stopping
distance, to get it down to a couple hundred feet, however I think that it
likely won't matter because the only way I can is on pavement where I always
have plenty of space, but on short rough strips (like where I could build one
at home) I think surface friction will be the limiting factor. Still curious
though.
Todd (trying to stop on a
dime)
I now have my two new high energy brake rotors, new
pads, new brake lines and the new fluid (also two new wheel pants
{:>)). I really like the feel and holding action of the new brake
set up - it does seem to make it stop a bit quicker (same size brake pads)
and there is no fade (like I would sometimes have at the end of a hard stop)
even after repeated high speed stops. Also the brakes just feel much
firmer and I like the results. I get no creep at WOT run up like could
happen before.
|