New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Any DA42 related topics.

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neema
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by neema »

Pictures! You guys kill me!
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Colin
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by Colin »

Okay, they were put on the plane in March and it took all the way until now to get the blog entry written. And there are photos.
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by CFIDave »

Colin wrote:Okay, they were put on the plane in March and it took all the way until now to get the blog entry written. And there are photos.
Nice blog entry about brakes. FYI, Berringer brakes are not (yet?) certified for the DA62; they'e only for the DA40 and 42. So new DA62s are shipping with Cleveland brakes and tires. The big main tires on the DA62 make it much less likely (compared to a DA42) that you will lock up the wheels when braking hard, so an antilock system isn't needed as much.

Not sure that Berringer brakes would help with a very different braking problem on DA62s: The nose wheel (same size as the big mains) of the DA62 sometimes takes an inordinate amount of brake pedal pressure to turn when taxiing -- you literally have to stand on the rudder pedals. For us to taxi our DA62 from our hangar to the runway requires making multiple tight 90-degree turns around rows of hangars while carefully watching wingtip clearance. To make such tight turns at the requisite low speed has required use of differential braking.

The result? At our first annual inspection we had to have all brake pads and rotors replaced -- we literally wore out the brakes and scored the rotors during our first year of DA62 ownership. We never had this problem with our previous DA42-VI using the same hangar and airport location. (All Diamond twins have nose wheel steering rather than a free castoring nose wheel like the DA20 and 40.)

Consequently we're now trying very hard not to use the brakes as much. We've overinflated the nose gear to make it easier to turn, and are attempting to use more differential engine thrust to try and turn the plane. But when making tight low-speed turns, it's hard not to use some braking.
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Colin
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by Colin »

Very good information about the DA62 steering. Does differential power help?
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by neema »

Thanks for the write up, Colin. The wheels look snazzy.

We should fly sometime. It's tough for me to even lock up the brakes and we frequent a 2200' strip (O42) at near max gross weight pretty frequently. Curious if there's that much difference between 42 variants.


Like Dave, we too had to replace a rotor and pads during last annual. I mostly blame that on us when we were learning. A lot of getting used to the rudder/brake pedals. I now regularly nag everyone to slide their feet down on the rudders if I feel brake dabs during taxi.

Still love this plane...
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by CFIDave »

Colin wrote:Very good information about the DA62 steering. Does differential power help?
We certainly have an incentive to use more differential power to avoid replacement of brake pads and rotors again. However when you're trying to perform tight 90 degree turns slowly between hangars, it's hard not to use some amount of differential braking to pivot and control forward movement. We never had this issue with our DA42.
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by jb642DA »

Colin wrote:Very good information about the DA62 steering. Does differential power help?
Very big difference!
(just picked up our DA62 this week- brought it home from London yesterday!)
Looking!
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by Colin »

Neema,

Where are you flying out of? Shoot me an email. We're in constant motion these days, but I keep a list of people to go flying with and since my personal minimum is that I need to keep current with a weekly flight I am always looking for a reason to fly.
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neema
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by neema »

Colin, shot you an email.
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Re: New Brakes, Tubeless Tires

Post by michael.g.miller »

Colin wrote: Fri Aug 03, 2018 3:37 am Okay, they were put on the plane in March and it took all the way until now to get the blog entry written. And there are photos.
Do you have any (rough) idea of how much your ground roll is reduced? In the Cirrus, Beringer touts a 40% reduction in ground roll. Is it similar in a DA42? Or is the advantage mostly in the reliability?
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