I landed today at a little airport that has a 3,000 foot runway with tress on one end and a lake on the other. I landed a little hot and got down on my brakes pretty hard to stop as quickly as possible; about 3/4 down the runway the brake pedal collapsed. My emergency brake doesn't work well which really left me in pickle. I pulled the emergency brake as hard as I could while doing my best turn to the plane before running off the end of the runway in to some very big and old pine trees; after making a 180 at the very end of the runway I was able to stop. Upon inspection I found that the "stem" that holds the brake pedal had broken; it looks like it was a poor casting.
I'll order a new one tomorrow and will wait until it's installed before I fly again. The scare now gives me all the reason I need to make sure that I have my emergency brake adjusted so that it will actually bring the plane to a stop.
