The standard brake system for the Sling TSi is a single piston Matco caliper. Although I don't plan on a lot of short filed landings, I do plan use the maximum useful load of the aircraft. With this in mind, I upgraded to the dual piston calipers from Matco. I reached out to Matco tech support and they provided me with a quote for all of the replacement hardware for just over $1K USD. Once the calipers and disks were returned, I received a credit of $400 USD making the final upgrade price around $600 USD.
The original disk is on top and new dual piston disk on the bottom. The increased thickness of the disk is quite evident.
It seemed odd to me that Matco uses 4 pads instead of 2 larger pads. These are the same pads as the single piston setup and are also the same pads used on many Vans aircraft that use Matco brakes.
Brake lines were installed in the gear legs, this took quite a bit of effort on the left side and I needed to clear out the tube molded into the gear leg using a piece of a tube as a drill and a lot of silicon spray to lubricate the hole.
I deviated from the plans for the brake lines inside the fuselage because I wanted braided PTFE lines throughout the rest of the airplane.
I found a custom brake line shop to fabricate the hoses that have a 90 degree on the outside of the fuselage and a straight -4AN fitting on the inside.
I used a -4AN T-fitting to join the left and right brakes in the center channel of the fuselage.
These brake lines are coated in PVC to reduce chafing on wire bundles and gives them a more finished appearance.
I drilled a hole in the side of the airframe to pass the 90 degree fittings out to connect to the brake lines from the main gear.
If I had to do this again I would actually get a 90 degree bulkhead fitting instead, this would have giving me a little more length on the brake lines inside the fuselage.
All of the brake lines have AN fittings so I needed to swap out the hardware on the parking brake valve and the brake master cylinder from NPT to -4AN.
I ran a 44" Stainless Braided line from the brake master cylinder to the firewall and fitted a 90 degree bulkhead fitting to terminate the brake lines forward and aft of the firewall.
Forward of the firewall (Engine Side) I used a 7" stainless PTFE brake line from the bulkhead to the brake fluid reservoir.
