Long ez right brake failure during landing roll out in a strong crosswind. As speed decreased and th...

Narrative:

After landing with a 10-15 knot turbulent crosswind; I was rolling out on the runway which slopes downhill in that direction; when I discovered I had no right brake action at all; despite trying hard and often. The canard pusher aircraft steers with brakes. So; once my speed dropped below the aerodynamic effectiveness of the rudders; it slowly weathervane into the wind and went off the runway onto a rough; sandy surface. After rolling about fifty feet; the nose gear collapsed; stopping the aircraft. I was not injured; and no fire occurred in the dry brush. Post incident I found the cause of the brake failure was a total loss of brake fluid through a cracked; but still intact; copper brake line. The incident could have been prevented with better design. The broken part; a three inch section of copper tubing; had been in service for over fifteen years; but a flexible aircraft standard hose should have been used in this application. Second; I had noticed a peculiar brake response on taxi out that day; but on repeatedly testing the brake; could not repeat it; and mistakenly concluded it was functioning normally. In hindsight; the peculiar response was probably the result of brake action with a leaky brake line! I should have taxied back; removed wheel fairings; and investigated further. The wet brake was not apparent with the wheel fairings on; but would have been obvious with their removal.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Long EZ right brake failure during landing roll out in a strong crosswind. As speed decreased and the rudder became ineffective the aircraft departed the runway causing nose gear collapse. A cracked brake line was found to be the culprit during post flight inspection.

Narrative: After landing with a 10-15 knot turbulent crosswind; I was rolling out on the runway which slopes downhill in that direction; when I discovered I had no right brake action at all; despite trying hard and often. The canard pusher aircraft steers with brakes. So; once my speed dropped below the aerodynamic effectiveness of the rudders; it slowly weathervane into the wind and went off the runway onto a rough; sandy surface. After rolling about fifty feet; the nose gear collapsed; stopping the aircraft. I was not injured; and no fire occurred in the dry brush. Post incident I found the cause of the brake failure was a total loss of brake fluid through a cracked; but still intact; copper brake line. The incident could have been prevented with better design. The broken part; a three inch section of copper tubing; had been in service for over fifteen years; but a flexible aircraft standard hose should have been used in this application. Second; I had noticed a peculiar brake response on taxi out that day; but on repeatedly testing the brake; could not repeat it; and mistakenly concluded it was functioning normally. In hindsight; the peculiar response was probably the result of brake action with a leaky brake line! I should have taxied back; removed wheel fairings; and investigated further. The wet brake was not apparent with the wheel fairings on; but would have been obvious with their removal.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1031625
Time
Date	201208
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Normal Brake System
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 2000 Flight Crew Type 1500
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control Ground Excursion Runway

Long ez right brake failure during landing roll out in a strong crosswind. As speed decreased and the rudder became ineffective the aircraft departed the runway causing nose gear collapse. A cracked brake line was found to be the culprit during post flight inspection.