The pilot, accompanied by a passenger, was practicing touch and go landings in the Luscombe 8A at the airport in Madera, Calif.
After a series of uneventful landings, he decided to perform a full-stop landing.
As he transitioned from the landing to the ground roll, he applied pressure to the foot brakes, and the plane swerved and went off the runway.
The left wing hit the ground and was substantially damaged, along with the aft fuselage structure.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as the pilot’s failure to maintain directional control during the landing roll.
NTSB Identification: WPR13CA150
This March 2013 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
Guess it depends a lot on the type and specimen of taildragger. I trained in a Champ and a Cessna 120 and got all that “tap dancing on the pedals” and “easy on the brakes” dogma from the git go. I have been flying a Glasair I TD for the past 18 years and while it has its own quirks, neither of the abovesaid rules applies. My aircraft requires a lot of right rudder to counter the left-turning tendency, and sometimes heavy right brake and full right aileron to stay aligned during takeoff. I have also used heavy braking as necessary due to flying 90mph on final. I maintain my aircraft (including its Cleveland brakes) and have never seen evidence of overheated metal, boiled brake fluid or other symptoms of abuse.
I am sure it has a lot to do with wing loading, CG, landing gear alignment (e.g. toe in) and vintage vs. modern brakes.
Just my two cents’ worth. YMMV.
I see a tired Luscombe with mechanical brakes generally to be used to hold the plane still for run-up and steering sharply on the ramp or near the hangars, not to slow the landing aircraft. True hold the stick aft but the little bird has some quirky issues that take getting use to. It also has a short CG range which can add excitement when the brakes are used very much (nose over). But, look at the 5K runway, why the brakes? Fly the plane and plan you approach and touch down point so not to taxi 3/4 of a mile back to the turn off.
A 5545 foot runway and you touch the brakes why? Probable cause is the use of brakes during a landing. Brakes on light aircraft are designed for ground maneuvering and handling, such as turning into a tie-down and stopping to park. A Luscombe will roll to a stop in a thousand feet. The two basic rules for tail-wheel flying are 1 don’t touch the brakes, 2 no mater what happens hold the stick, ,(yoke) back. The only real exceptions to this are off-airport operations when pushing the aircraft right to it’s limits, a 5000+ foot airport is not that.
I have flown tailwheel airplanes since the late 70’s and disagree. The FAA Airplane Flying Handbook indicates the following for using brakes during landings in tailwheel airplanes. Normal rollout: “Brakes may be used if needed to help slow the airplane”. Short-field landing rollout: “Immediately upon touchdown, and closing the throttle, the brakes should be applied evenly and firmly to minimize the after-landing roll”. I.e. brakes on tailwheel airplanes are a resource as on any other airplane for use at the pilot’s discretion. If a pilot operating a tailwheel airplane wanted to reduce the rollout for a stop and go, or to make an exit on a certain taxiway, use of the brakes to accomplish that would be a normal thing to do like with any other airplane.
Additionally, long time-consuming rollouts could have some negative consequences. They would expose the pilot for a longer time above taxi speeds to possible directional control problems from winds. And they may cause problems for following aircraft that expected the preceding aircraft to exit the runway in a normal amount of time.
I am not disagreeing with you as to the “pilot’s discretion” on use of brakes.
This will be like the 3-point vs. wheel landing argument, it is a choice of the pilot.
I have not been flying as long as you , 1983 for me. I am also an A&P since “83 and have put a lot of T/W aircraft back together because the pilot misused the brakes. A 5 thousand plus foot runway is not a short field, and brakes should not be needed to “slow the airplane” as well, given the amount of runway. As I said, “real exceptions to this are off-airport operations when pushing the aircraft right to it’s limits”, this would include listed short fields. I use brakes when landing my Piper Pacer at home, but my strip is a little less than 1000 feet. Perhaps I should have stated as “excessive use of brakes” the point is maintain control of the airplane and heavy braking can work against that.
Light aircraft brakes are also designed for slow speed use they are not transport cat. aircraft that are required to be able to “abort” a take off with brakes, just look at the size of them verses the brakes on a motorcycle that weighs about the same but are made for constant use.