Hi, I have noticed from most of Airliner.net pic that American does not operate their F-100's rear brake during approaches. Is there a reason why? I managed to find 1 photo of the rear brake partially opened during slowdown.http://www.airliners.net/open.file/215929/L/Thanks,Bill

Sure there's a reason ....YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!Where d'ya think all the Warthog pilots go when there's no war on? Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/cxkaitak.htmlhttp://www.swiremariners.com/reds.htmlhttp://www.swiremariners.com/cxkaitakv3.jpg

Hi Bill,Not sure about American, but I can tell you that I have ridden in the cockpit with Mexicana on several occasions and noticed that they did not use the thrust reversers. This is, I was told, company policy due to the fact that using the reversers with the airbrake open could damage the rear appendage on F-100's with the TAY 650 (15,100 lbs of thrust) engines (more powerful than the standard TAY 620's 13,850). I am thinking that American prefers to use the reversers and not the airbrakes, just the opposite of Mexicana, but maybe for the same reason. Mexicana has alos fitted special breaks on their F-100's so that they can stop without the use of reverse thrust.I am not sure if companies operating the F-100 with the TAY 620's have a similar procedure, but all of the ones operating TAY 650's that I am familiar with either shun the use of the reversers or of the airbrake, especially in tandem.Mark

I beleive the way it works is the airbrakes are used in flight to slow down so you can cant ever see them deployed and the lift dumps do not operate in air just on landing.Happy FlyingAnthony Hurst

Hi Bill,It could also be a noise abatement issue as well. Keep the bird low drag on approach so the pilots don't have to carry extra power with the speed brake open. Just a thought.Cheers,JohnBoeing 727/737 Mechanic

Well, I read somewhere that the lift dumpers (on the wings) are not designed to be opened in flight, and the designers thought it more economical to add the rear clamshell break for use in flght.