Note to self: Try not to set airplane on fire
The latest issue of AVweb opens with a story about how airplanes like my Cirrus SR20 are catching on fire, with the fires starting inside the wheel pants due to overheated brakes:
there are no design or equipment faults at work, and for Cirrus this leaves only “operator error” as the cause. Unlike many aircraft pilots may be transitioning from, Cirruses have a free castering nosewheel and are steered only with differential braking, plus some positive or negative contribution from the rudder
The Diamond Katanas in which I trained and the Diamond DA40 that I formerly owned both had the free castering nosewheel and as far as I know, no pilot ever managed to set one of those on fire. Cirrus chose to put the parking brake lever way down underneath the panel where it isn’t in one’s line of sight. That might be a factor (the Diamond parking brake is right up by the throttle). Otherwise, it is tough to say. To folks learning to fly the Cirrus: remember to push the rudder all the way in before resorting to a light tap on the brakes. If you feel that you must tap both brakes to slow down when taxiing, it means you’ve got too much throttle in.
