Narrative:

During my walkaround I notice large amounts of white smoke coming from the right main gear assembly. As I approached the landing gear assembly; I noticed that white smoke was rising from inboard and outboard brake assemblies. This white smoke was very noticeable and even brought the attention of the ground personnel. They asked if they should dispatch the fire extinguishers and I responded; 'yes; but remain under wing and at a distance in case of a fuse plug blow out.' I then stopped my preflight and returned to the flight deck to notify the captain. The captain immediately responded and recommended we contact dispatch/maintenance to investigate; and in agreement; determined we had a very hot brakes (south) assembly. During that time; I was able to discuss the inbound flight to the ground personnel; and they indicated that they witnessed a short landing and immediate braking from this flight. The inbound crew did not indicate anything to me as we engaged the 'swap aircraft' routine in the jet bridge.once the captain established communications with dispatch/maintenance control they called contract maintenance to the aircraft. Once contract maintenance arrived at the aircraft there was a moment of confusion as to the issue at hand. The captain; along with maintenance control; instructed them to perform the task at hand which was the white smoke from the brake assemblies. Now; we had to ask for the brake temp readings to be made at the request of the pilots (both captain and me); they did. They responded with '450'. However; at the time; there seemed to be some miscommunication as to the limitation in our aom (aircraft operating manual) (3-21); as it pertains to the max 425 degree turn limit.the captain was very polite but seemed to be questioning the maintenance control's interpretation of our limitation. They seemed to believe that the limitation was only associated with an alert initiated by the system. The only system; we as a crew; are aware of is the pwb (performance weight and balance) landing alert for brake temperature on landing. This is generated by the pwb system not by any onboard system on the aircraft. We then asked that the maintenance personnel return to the aircraft after signing off our logbook with no leaks; because we needed a brake temp reading. They did return; and we received a recording of 325/350 for the right main gear assembly. We then were all in agreement that we had maintained the safest level of our [risk management] and our [risk assessment] procedures and departed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737-700 First Officer reports that after hot brakes were observed on the walk around; Maintenance Control interpreted the Pilot's Aircraft Operating Manual temperature limitation differently than the pilot crew.

Narrative: During my walkaround I notice large amounts of white smoke coming from the right main gear assembly. As I approached the landing gear assembly; I noticed that white smoke was rising from inboard and outboard brake assemblies. This white smoke was very noticeable and even brought the attention of the ground personnel. They asked if they should dispatch the fire extinguishers and I responded; 'Yes; but remain under wing and at a distance in case of a fuse plug blow out.' I then stopped my preflight and returned to the flight deck to notify the Captain. The Captain immediately responded and recommended we contact Dispatch/Maintenance to investigate; and in agreement; determined we had a very hot brakes (S) assembly. During that time; I was able to discuss the inbound flight to the ground personnel; and they indicated that they witnessed a short landing and immediate braking from this flight. The inbound crew did not indicate anything to me as we engaged the 'swap aircraft' routine in the jet bridge.Once the Captain established communications with Dispatch/Maintenance Control they called Contract Maintenance to the aircraft. Once Contract Maintenance arrived at the aircraft there was a moment of confusion as to the issue at hand. The Captain; along with Maintenance Control; instructed them to perform the task at hand which was the white smoke from the brake assemblies. Now; we had to ask for the brake temp readings to be made at the request of the pilots (both Captain and me); they did. They responded with '450'. However; at the time; there seemed to be some miscommunication as to the limitation in our AOM (Aircraft Operating Manual) (3-21); as it pertains to the max 425 degree turn limit.The Captain was very polite but seemed to be questioning the Maintenance Control's interpretation of our limitation. They seemed to believe that the limitation was only associated with an alert initiated by the system. The only system; we as a crew; are aware of is the PWB (Performance Weight and Balance) landing alert for brake temperature on landing. This is generated by the PWB system not by any onboard system on the aircraft. We then asked that the Maintenance Personnel return to the aircraft after signing off our logbook with no leaks; because we needed a brake temp reading. They did return; and we received a recording of 325/350 for the right main gear assembly. We then were all in agreement that we had maintained the safest level of our [risk management] and our [risk assessment] procedures and departed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.