An Embraer Phenom 100's hydraulic system failed completely after takeoff so the pilot declared an emergency and diverted. Upon landing the right main emergency brake locked up causing the tire to fail.
Synopsis
An Embraer Phenom 100's hydraulic system failed completely after takeoff so the pilot declared an emergency and diverted. Upon landing the right main emergency brake locked up causing the tire to fail.
Narrative
My aircraft suffered a complete hydraulic failure shorty after departure. Single pilot; no passengers on board. I was forced to extend the landing gear manually and had only emergency braking available. I diverted; requested the longest runway and declared an emergency. This aircraft type has had several instances where; when the pilot was forced to use the emergency brake; one or both main tires blew out. Obviously directional control and stopping performance are significantly degraded. Emergency braking in this type of aircraft is simply slowly applying the parking brake. However; no anti-skid protection is available. This knowledge was a major factor in the decision to divert and declare an emergency. The landing gear was manually extended; and after some delay vectors to burn off excess fuel; I made a visual approach to runway 1L. Upon landing; I cautiously applied emergency brake. I perceived that the tires were locked up and the aircraft veered hard to the right. I released the brake and regained directional control. After this I began to feel a strong vibration as the aircraft began to decelerate slowly. The aircraft came to a stop on the runway. The right main tire had blown out. In hindsight; I don't think I could have done much differently if I had to do it again. I might have delayed the application of E brake until a slower airspeed had been reached. I didn't break any regulation or company procedures; but nonetheless; submitting a report doesn't hurt.The main cause of the event was the failure of the hydraulic power pack which provides pressure to the users of the system; ie.; landing gear and brakes. This failure compounded into two other failures; one of which lead to the tire blowing.I think the design of the E brake of absolutely horrible. These aircraft will continue to have problems with the E brake and tire blowouts until the design is changed. The E brake handle is far too sensitive. Moreover; a more robust and reliable system would remove the need to ever attempt to use the Emergency Brake at all.
NASA callback
The Reporter stated that the Power Pack (pump) failed and so the normal brakes were unavailable. The flight controls are purely mechanical and so not affected. He knows of only one other Power Pack failure so apparently it was a rare event. The Brake Control Unit problem however is apparently not an isolated issue because there have been other instances of various types of failures in this electronic braking system. In this event because normal hydraulics were not available; the nitrogen pre-charge was used through the parking brake handle to activate the brakes. It is extremely sensitive as seen in this event; and the same amount of activation does not affect the brakes equally.
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.