On a recent flight to LFMD – Cannes, the following happened to me.
After returning to the aircraft I found out that they had towed it to a different parking location. Brakes were on!
I filed a complaint and since then they have been dragging their feet with regards to possible damage and compensation.
Upon landing they had wanted to tow it away because it was supposedly not possible to taxi to my final parking position.I said no, had a Marsh aller walk me to the position and then with his assistance taxied there. When we left he did not mention « brakes off » nor did he tell me that they would take the liberty of moving it back to the main apron.
The exchange has been frustrating as they put out lame justification which I had to refute . We are not progressing.
Thoughts?
I had this too in the distant past. It’s a particularly brainless act by the ground crew, because they know perfectly well they are supposed to check brakes are off (by pushing the plane a little bit).
Best you can do is an inspection of the nose gear and the firewall, for cracks. You can NDT in situ fairly easily, with the aerosol test kit.
Airports will never pay out on anything until actually taken to court. Some get prop strikes fairly often, during taxi.
Some places I go have a laminated A4 card that goes in windscreen saying whether brake on/off and clear to move or not. You can leave it ‘red’ and saying no move and then you’ve made it clear to anyone when you’re not there they could damage the aircraft. Example here seen with park brake off
Question: why would you put brakes on rather then using chocks ?
(Never done it, hence my naive question)
It depends – but a light aircraft with spats and hence tiny chocks which fit beneath can easily jump them in high winds. Less of an issue with retractables and heavier aircraft.
I learned early on that leaving the brakes on in the elderly spamcans I still fly is a recipe for a pool of fluid on the carpet next morning. Plus, in the US, planes get moved around by the FBO so ‘brakes off’ is standard practice. As are tie downs.
