Hi.

I have a Hobbico hobbistar MKIII 60 Trainer. Is there any way to add a wheel brake to this plane?

I have a 7 Channel Transmitter.

Yes, but don't bother.

There is absolutely no reason for the added weight and expense of brakes for a trainer.

Is there some reason you need them, or are you just curious about the idea?

Brakes probably aren't a great option. What are you trying to accomplish? If you're concerned about fast taxing or long landing runouts, the best way to approach that is with pieces fuel tubing placed on the axles. Compress them against the hub of the wheel with a washer and the wheel collar. That'll introduce a little more friction.

I've seen a brake put on the nosegear of a .40 size model, and the most charitable way to describe it is ineffective. It was a drum-brake produced by Dubro, if I remember right.

I'm with the two responses above. Brakes would probably be expensive and not all that needed on a trainer. Save that money for your second plane.

Fuel tubing on the main gear axles is the best way. Try to get them to drag equally so the plane doesn't pull to the side.

Oh yeah, work on the idle speed and try a finer pitched prop.

Both.

It's not a 100% necessity, but there have been a couple of times where I think I could have used a wheel brake. One time, I knew I was out of runway after coming in a little fast, but also low on fuel, so I throttle up to try one more time and ran out of gas just as I left the ground. I quickly turned left to avoid the lake at the end of the runway and was able to land ok in some brush but broke my prop when my plane rolled into a hole. It flipped my plane, but only the prop was damaged.

I thought brakes would be a nice way to help stop my plane. It seems to roll forever once I land. Plus, I thought it would be interesting to install. If these brakes are available.

I bought 4 inch wheels to replace the original wheels.

Do what the others have suggested and put a small length of fuel tubing AND A WASHER between the collar and the hub. The washer is needed because the tubing, believe it or not, will cut into the hub and destroy the wheel.

This will not interfere with takeoff or landing and your plane will slow quickly on touch-down. It a;so helps avoid the 'unintentional take-off when you have too much gorundspeed on rollout.

Good Luck!!

No offense, but it just sounds like you need to practice landings a bit more. You shouldn't need breaks on a trainer. You might want to look at your landing speed, your throttle setting at landing (should be at idle), your idle speed might be too high, and you may be landing a bit too far down the runway. When I was learning on a trainer, i used to put in at least 20 takeoffs and landings on a tank of fuel, and I would practice hitting my aiming point, and landing smoothly on the centerline of the runway, regardless of wind direction or conditions that day. keep practicing!

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, practice will take care of the problem. Although I also thought it would be fun to taxi onto the runway, apply the brake, go full-throttle and release the brake for a aircraft carrier type take-off. Although this may look quite pathetic with a trainer.

I guess I'm really just looking for an exuse to "pimp my plane".

Just wondering - Do brakes work with a seperate channel on the transmitter (ie. similar to the flaps knob that turns)?

AFTER you're on the ground, full DOWN elevator helps by putting a higher load on the front gear, which will help slow ;your roll out down
bhady

sounds to me like you want breaks regardless of what everyone else's opinion is of If YOU need them or not so pick up a set from BVM, you can get sport tires w/ breaks (2 1/4" tires) for less then 200 bucks, you'll need an air tank and tubing, and I'd recommend the smooth stop break valve. you'll have 300 bucks give or take in it and they'll be activated via the separate channel on your radio and air driven.

their is a electric brand out there that works with a micro switch (full down elevator activation) but it's pretty much junk.

kc

Fly your trainer till the covering falls off, while your doing that spend the money you would put in your trainer for brakes on your next airplane. Sounds like you like to tinker some, might consider building your second plane from a kit?

Might want to try zig zagging once you hit the ground. It will bleed off speed and "add distance" to your runway. I use that approach sometimes when the wind has swapped directions in the middle of a flight and it looks like I am going to run out of runway. Just push the rudder from side to side and you will bleed off a lot of speed and slow down a lot in a shorter distance. May not be quite scale, if you're looking for that, but it will slow you down considerably if you start looking short on runway.

Actually the exact opposite is true. As with full scale Tricyle gear aircraft either choosing to use minimum brakes or having brake failure the idea is to land as slow as possible first off (within safety limits). Land nose high on the main gear and hold the nose up as far as possible (without dragging tail) for as long as possible. The technique is called Aerodynamic Braking. The additional drag caused by presenting the bottom of the wing to the air is considerable. I have used this technique in both models and full scale flying. Once the nose finally settles the S-turns can help to scrub off speed.

It's mentioned several paragraphs down in this report:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/sb03.html

If you have your heart set on adding a brake, here's one of the simple Dubro ones I mentioned. http://www.udisco.com/hobbies/inv/DUBRO.HTM Look down for part 157. These seem destined to become pretty rare, as Dubro doesn't list them in its own catalog any longer. It's cheap enough to make an impulse purchase, and if you really want to add one, why not? Part of the fun of this hobby is in trying new things.

agexpert ,

Thanks for the tip on the 'washer' - I didn't know about that. I used the fuel tubing on my NexStar to slow her down on landing (I fly from mostly short fields with beans on the ends) and it worked great. Now I need to go check to make sure it hasn't chewed into the wheels and add the washer.

Thanks again.

another option is the kavan electric brake. pricey but will fit on your application.

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/wheels.htm#Brake

of course, as everyone has mentioned, they are probably not necessary. if you can't land a trainer, don't think about flying any other place. trainers pretty much land the slowest. good luck!

How about a droge chute? Yea then when you touch down you pop the chute. Man will everyone at the field be impressed[:@]

Now that would be awesome.

I put a homemade friction against tire brake on a sort of trainer a very long time ago. It was fun to design but unnecessary as my landing skill became better.

I have also used the fuel tubing friction method on airplanes that were over proped.

Bill

Smaller tires would be good unless you just want brakes.

Don't take this the wrong way, A complete waste of money and time. Get your to idle around 2000 rpm and learn how to fly. No gadget is going to circumvent (spelling) that. Spend your money and time building your next plane instead of buying an ARF. You really will be better off.

drogue chute would be awesome... but of course if you ever wanted to abort a landing and the chute is out... you'd be pretty much screwed. but still a great idea. even better if it were on a military jet where some actually did need them.

on that note, what about an arresting cable :-) kekkkekekekek

Or possibly the landing wires used on an aircraft carrier.