Instructor pilot reports difficulties with luscombe heel brakes during a crosswind wheel landing. Br...

Narrative:

Occurred while giving make/model instruction to owner/pilot during the course of a wheel landing demonstration. During a wheel landing with a slight crosswind from right to left the aircraft began a slight weather vain into the wind. I then made a left rudder correction while anticipating to stop the left correction with a slight bump of the right rudder and heel brake. The brake (mechanical with cable) was extended and would not engage and required a large use of rudder for the correction. The large input of rudder became effective and the aircraft came hard right into the wind approximately 45 degrees right of centerline. I then allowed the plane to remain into the wind and depart the runway and on to the taxiway while avoiding lights and signs where I stopped the aircraft. I felt any attempt to correct left to remain on the runway would have developed a ground loop causing damage to the aircraft. After parking I contacted tower personnel and they confirmed no damage to airport property and I provided contact phone number; if needed. Inspection of the aircraft revealed no damage. My conclusion is the brakes need to be properly adjusted to be used if necessary. As this is a sensitive vintage (1949) aircraft. The aircraft has no flaps and to maintain a landing attitude for a wheel landing airspeed is up and is very sensitive to inputs. Slowing to a low energy landing the aircraft is naturally in a 3 point attitude where ground loop tendencies are diminished.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Instructor pilot reports difficulties with Luscombe heel brakes during a crosswind wheel landing. Brakes did not work as expected and large rudder input resulted in a runway departure.

Narrative: Occurred while giving make/model instruction to owner/pilot during the course of a wheel landing demonstration. During a wheel landing with a slight crosswind from right to left the aircraft began a slight weather vain into the wind. I then made a left rudder correction while anticipating to stop the left correction with a slight bump of the right rudder and heel brake. The brake (mechanical with cable) was extended and would not engage and required a large use of rudder for the correction. The large input of rudder became effective and the aircraft came hard right into the wind approximately 45 degrees right of centerline. I then allowed the plane to remain into the wind and depart the runway and on to the taxiway while avoiding lights and signs where I stopped the aircraft. I felt any attempt to correct left to remain on the runway would have developed a ground loop causing damage to the aircraft. After parking I contacted tower personnel and they confirmed no damage to airport property and I provided contact phone number; if needed. Inspection of the aircraft revealed no damage. My conclusion is the brakes need to be properly adjusted to be used if necessary. As this is a sensitive vintage (1949) aircraft. The aircraft has no flaps and to maintain a landing attitude for a wheel landing airspeed is up and is very sensitive to inputs. Slowing to a low energy landing the aircraft is naturally in a 3 point attitude where ground loop tendencies are diminished.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	859110
Time
Date	200911
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	Luscombe Model 8/Luscombe 50
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Landing
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Normal Brake System
Person 1
Function	Instructor Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Flight Instructor Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 5000 Flight Crew Type 50
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Excursion Runway Inflight Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control

Instructor pilot reports difficulties with luscombe heel brakes during a crosswind wheel landing. Brakes did not work as expected and large rudder input resulted in a runway departure.