Brake malfunction? Sad to see.


Here's a link to The Washington Post, which has the incident filmed from the front seat.

Sad to see indeed.

That's about as calm as anyone can be during a crash.

Curious- does a Stearman have heel brakes or toe brakes, or some other type? Or is this a case of too aggressive of stick-forward on a wheel landing?

Looked like the front-seat occupant braced with his hand right away, but the rear-seat occupant might have neglected to.

Looks to me that the wheel was locked up as soon as it touched down,puff of smoke at the tire.
Went over kinda easy(if there is such a thing),so a rebuild will make it as good as new.Bummer.

Fly safe this summer,C

Do they make a nose wheel conversion for a Stearman

Tim

qmdv wrote:Do they make a nose wheel conversion for a Stearman

Tim

Thar STC is only for Stinson's........

denalipilot wrote:Curious- does a Stearman have heel brakes or toe brakes, or some other type?

Toe brakes and they are very effective. If they are the original brakes and not Redline upgrades they have a tendency to grab. In this case the front seat passanger was filming for a news station and used the rudder pedals to brace himself up for a better shot which was locking the brakes. The pilot did not know until touchdown. I always try to remember to brief my passangers to keep their feet on the wood floor and off anything black...in our Stearman the rudder pedals and battery box are black.

Whatever the reason, it's a damn shame.

lowflybye wrote:..... In this case the front seat passanger was filming for a news station and used the rudder pedals to brace himself up for a better shot which was locking the brakes. The pilot did not know until touchdown. .....

Good reason to NOT have dual controls. I removed the RH yoke & pedals from mine cuz it's hard for any passenger over about 5-5 to keep from getting their feet and/or knees tangled up in the RH controls of a C150. Saved 4-1/2 pounds to boot.

According to this the pilots says he tapped on the brakes upon touchdown...

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/St ... 684-1.html

Brings back some bad memories..