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2 Answers

Spinning wheels.

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Aircraft Systems

  I have heard, from a few places, that after take off, I should taps the brakes to stop the wheels from spinning.  Why?  

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2 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Aug 13, 2015

    There are a number of reasons given for tapping the brakes to stop the wheels spinning on a retract, from elongation of the tires while spinning to possible damage to hydraulic lines during retraction to tossing snow, and other crap into the wheel wells. Even for those, however, you will find a wide divergence of opinion.

    For fixed gear (and these also apply to retracts), the theories come down to removing any gyroscopic precession effects from the spinning tires, practice of an SOP to be used later on retracts, and the very simple, if your tires are unbalanced, stopping the rotation will stop the extra vibration temporarily produced by the spinning unbalanced tires. Again, you will get a divergence of opinion on the need for any of this.

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  2. Ryan R on Aug 14, 2015

    I have heard that if the wheels spin down to a stop after airborne without tapping the brakes, they will stop rotating with the exact same spot facing down most of the time. The spot on the tire that faces down will contact the runway during each landing and start to form a bald area on the tread of the tire. This has been the “bioscience” that I have heard and never gave it much thought until now. Good question to ask and great response Mark.

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