[quote]The "good" brake hose[/quote]
I probably shouldn't mention this before the children
go to bed, but you don't need brakes on a light aircraft.
All the ultralights around here on floats don't have any
brakes installed. They want to slow down, they just
drive off the taxiway into the grass. I am not making
this up.
[url=
http://www.pittspecials.com/articles/Mistakes.htm]
www.pittspecials.com/articles/Mistakes.htm[/url]
[quote]Last category I will mention is mechanical, which historically causes around 10% of GA accidents (this means that pilots cause the other 90%).
The lesson to learn here is that as the pilot, it’s up to you to deal with other people’s mistakes – not just yours. Could be a mechanic, the manufacturer, or a supplier. While this might not seem fair at first, well, that’s life in the pointy end. You’re holding the bag.
But it’s not as bad as it sounds. No one will ever tell you this, but there is considerable redundancy in an aircraft, and you can have an awful lot of stuff broken on it, and it will still fly ok, if you don’t let it rattle you.
For example, we could have an airplane with a broken vacuum pump (no attitude indicator, no heading indicator), broken pitot-static systems (no airspeed indicator, no altimeter, no VSI), no compass, broken tachometer, broken starter, broken alternator, all the radios gone, missing battery, unserviceable flaps, dead right magneto, missing interior …. and it will fly just fine.
I shouldn’t mention this, but a few years back, a friend of mine was going to cancel a flight because his right brake was mushy. I looked at the strong crosswind from the right across the runway, and told him he didn’t actually need it. He asked how he could turn right? I told him a 270 left would probably work. His flight went fine. Don’t tell anyone this, though.
As long as gas is flowing to the engine and the prop is turning, and the flight controls move, life is good in VMC. Even that stuff isn’t actually required.
A friend of mind lost his C140’s prop in flight, so he just landed at a nearby airport. Many airshow pilots have done that. And I routinely teach flight control failure in my advanced checkouts. You can actually fly an airplane just fine with power, pitch trim and rudder – you don’t need ailerons or elevator. With two engines, you don’t even need the rudder. Heck, if you have doors and dihedral on a single, you don’t need the rudders, either.
People will criticize me for saying this, but become an expert at flying broken airplanes, and flying them well. This skill will pay off hugely in the future, when you have to deal with other people’s mistakes.[/quote]
More light reading:
[url=
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bagh ... the_strike]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Bagh ... the_strike[/url]
[quote]a 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14 Gremlin) surface-to-air missile struck the left wing tip. The warhead damaged trailing edge surfaces and structure and caused a fire. All three hydraulic systems lost pressure and flight controls were disabled.
In about 10 minutes of experimentation, the crew learned to manage turns, climbs and descents. After a meandering trajectory, they executed a right turn and initiated a descent path[/quote]