MD-11
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Confusion; Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Communication Breakdown
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General Maintenance Action
Procedure; Company Policy
Taxi in and noted approaching the gate that we got a Level 2 Hot Brakes. Parked aircraft and noted 573 degrees brake #2 and right after; brake #5 also indicated 573 degrees. [We] notified Maintenance on ground headset that we had hot brakes and were writing this up in the maintenance log. This gate arrival instruction specifically states that this gate does not allow single engine taxi in. We weighed approximately 411;000 LBS. Airplane wanted to accelerate and braking was required.  Relatively light weight MD-11... had to use brakes to control taxi speed. Talking to Maintenance after block in; hot brakes have been a common occurrence on three nearby gates and we can add ours to this as well. Most aircraft have apparently been MD-11s. An aircraft in the past few days had to have a tire changed because the fuse plugs melted coming into one of these gates. I have mentioned this before and in my opinion; common sense needs to prevail. There are times certainly when less than all engines running should not be done. We are all pretty much aware of the jet blast issues on some of these gates. That said; to make an all encompassing prohibition potentially presents another safety issue; an overheated; exploding tire; for example. Is it not possible to come up with some other guidelines that provide some relief and would allow us for example; to shutdown an engine when we are lightweight coming into gates where this is now prohibited?
A light weight MD-11 developed hot brakes during taxi in because of brake usage but was constrained from taxiing into the assigned gate with less than all engines operating.