Flying-type disk drive slider with wear pad

A flying slider is disclosed for a rigid disk drive application. The slider includes a wear pad disposed at least substantially at its trailing edge on a lower surface thereof. An appropriate transducer(s) is typically embedded within this wear pad. One or more air bearing surfaces are disposed on the lower surface of the slider as well for allowing the slider to fly relative to the disk. At least one of these air bearing surfaces is disposed close to this wear pad, but is separated therefrom by a recess which is of a depth so as to not have the wear pad function as an air bearing surface. On the initial operation of the disk drive with the described slider therein, the uplifting forces applied to the slider by the noted air bearing surfaces are insufficient to dispose the wear pad above the glide avalanche of the disk or to fly the slider such that the wear pad is disposed above the glide height. Therefore, the wear pad is burnished in the initial operation of the disk drive and typically prior to releasing the disk drive for distribution. Burnishing of the wear pad continues until a small space develops between the wear pad and the disk (e.g., slightly above the glide height). Once burnishing operations are completed, the wear pad is no longer subjected to any substantial wearing or burnishing, and the fly height of the slider is only slightly greater than the glide height which enhances the exchange of signals between the transducer(s) and disk.