Brake Life Expectancy

H. Paul Shuch is a Light Sport Repairman with Maintenance ratings for airplanes, gliders, weight shift control, and powered parachutes, as well as an independent Rotax Maintenance Technician at the Heavy Maintenance level. He holds a PhD in Air Transportation Engineering from the University of California, and serves as Director of Maintenance for AvSport of Lock Haven.

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JJ Campbell
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Joined: Fri May 31, 2019 4:10 pm

Brake Life Expectancy

Post by JJ Campbell »

I've had 269 full-stop landings in my Tecnam P92 Eaglet since the last brake pad replacement. Is this good, bad or average? I didn't notice any issue with the brakes but the A&P doing my conditional said they were needed.
Sport Pilot ASEL
Tecnam P92 Eaglet
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Warmi
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Location: Frankfort, IL

Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by Warmi »

My first set of pads lasted around 300 landings , the second between 500-600 landings ...pads were obviously exactly the same , I just got better , landing slower and not dragging brakes while taxing.

PS.
Now , this is not exactly comparable anyway .. now that I think about it ,if my hangar was located in a different row , I would almost never need to use brakes since there would be no incentive to “make the exit” ...
Flying Sting S4 ( N184WA ) out of Illinois
3Dreaming
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Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by 3Dreaming »

Most mechanics who are not familiar with the Marc brakes will say they need replaced. The minimum thickness for the Marc pads from the P92 MM is 2.4mm. That is way less that the normal pad thickness that aircraft mechanics are used to.
Type47
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Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by Type47 »

Most people who are familiar with the Marc brakes will agree that they should be replaced regardless of their condition. :lol:
Type47
LSRI
INTJ
2006 Tecnam P92 Echo Super
Don’t do the thing that almost killed you until you at least get the staples taken out of your head first….
3Dreaming
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Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by 3Dreaming »

Type47 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:01 pm Most people who are familiar with the Marc brakes will agree that they should be replaced regardless of their condition. :lol:
If it is an option to switch. I know it is with Flight Design. Honestly, never really had an issue with the Marc brakes, but they do require different care and feeding. That is until you have replace other than consumable parts.
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JimParker256
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Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by JimParker256 »

Type47 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:01 pm Most people who are familiar with the Marc brakes will agree that they should be replaced regardless of their condition. :lol:
OK - it's been a while since I literally laughed out loud, but I did on that comment! Too funny!
Jim Parker
2007 RANS S-6ES (Rotax 912ULS)
Light Sport Repairman - Airplane - Inspection
Farmersville, TX
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FastEddieB
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Re: Brake Life Expectancy

Post by FastEddieB »

Type47 wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 8:01 pm Most people who are familiar with the Marc brakes will agree that they should be replaced regardless of their condition. :lol:
To be fair, the Marc brake pads on my Sky Arrow still had some life left in them after nearly 600 hours and 14 years. Lots of local lights with a fair number of touch and goes - somewhere around 800 landings if my logbook is correct. I don't abuse them, but don't baby them either. I replaced them proactively not too long ago with a lightly used set a forum member gave me (Thanks, Andy!).

Anyway, no complaints about the brakes, as I've stated before.
Fast Eddie B.
Sky Arrow 600 E-LSA • N467SA
CFI, CFII, CFIME
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