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I come from an aviation background of sorts and got real suspicious on a flight last night.
Leaving Denver, slight delay because, according to the announcement, there was a problem with a computer.
Rather vague but I don't think passengers need too much to think about - that might have been TMI.
We sat there a half hour during which a flight attendant said to stay in our seats - the emergency brake wasn't on. Again, strange. I thought.
Not long after takeoff - I was dozing off - there was an unusual noise, quite loud. It was distressing. Right after it stopped the flight deck announced that the noise we just heard was the landing gear being extended due to hot brakes. Trying to cool them off. Huh? How about telling us before you scare us, skippy. After a while he did it again. (More hot brakes? )
It was a horrible landing and it didn't seem like he even used flaps for deceleration.
Once we were taxiing the aircrew came on and made a little joke about arriving SAFELY.
I
Leaving Denver, slight delay because, according to the announcement, there was a problem with a computer.
the emergency brake wasn't on.
Not long after takeoff there was an unusual noise,
after it stopped the flight deck announced that the noise we just heard was the landing gear being extended due to hot brakes.
After a while he did it again. (More hot brakes? )
it didn't seem like he even used flaps for deceleration.
It's possible what he said wasn't what was going on.
Maybe main or emergency brakes were slightly engaged on takeoff.
If the emergency brake wasn't working during taxi, maybe they overused the main brake. Or Vice versa
Why deploy the landing gear a second time?
Weird if he came in extra hot with reduced flaps if there was a questionable braking situation.
Of course I'm giving you the information I have as a passenger.
When we pushed back, turned engines, then had a maintenance delay, I don't think they did anything but try to clear or reset the fault codes. I'm pretty sure no maintainers got involved.
Seems obvious it didn't work between parking brake, hot brakes and speed brakes...
The flight attendants were uneasy throughout, evidenced by distracted, disjointed announcements and their final remark emphasizing arriving safely.
If I knew how to pick my future flight crews I would not pick these guys.
Again, how do you get hot brakes during takeoff, and once you're in the air? And is it procedure to correct that condition by extending gear?
I'm trying not to use the label bozo...
ETA: I responded to the survey the airline sent and politely told them what I thought.
Somebody who actually knows how this might happen should post up soon.
The only thing I can think of is that the brakes were dragging on one or more wheels during takeoff, and the hot brakes sensor took some time to register. Either that or the hot brakes sensing system itself malfunctioned.
With a brake overheat indication it's standard procedure to drop the gear to cool it.
A computer reset is a normal thing to do and most likely had nothing to do with the brakes.
Like I said though the OP hasn't given nearly enough info to be useful.
FAs don't really understand anything mechanical about airplanes. They are notoriously wrong. For the most part they lack any sort of mechanical aptitude to understand what is really happening. By the way the OP writes they don't either lol.
Perhaps thinking too much into the warning cited and not about other possibilities, but I have a hypothesis:
Sensors may expect brakes to be cooled down a certain amount by a certain time? Landing gear may be extended as many times as necessary to reduce heat until it is under a certain temp?
How common is this? I flew a lot in the past and never happened on my flights.
Would the brakes dragging on takeoff be the reason for the overheat? Are there other causes?
Common? No. Possible? Yes. Especially on an Airbus with the enclosed gear. Their brakes are always warm especially at hot/high airports like Denver. When you put something hot in an enclosed area with little ventilation it tends to heat up. Couple that with an extended taxi most likely and soon after takeoff they start heating up. Brake sensors don't instantly get hot, it takes a bit of time for them to register.
I know a technique some guys use in places like LAS etc with warm brakes is to leave the gear down just a bit longer before retracting it to prevent issues.
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