Flying skis?

NC74392

NC74392

New member
I've always wondered... Say you're flying up north to the Winter Skiplane fly-in at Oshkosh. Along the way you need to stop to refuel where there ain't no snow. All you have are skis- not the skis with wheels sticking through them. Now what?!? Do you find a grass strip, slide it on and pray you have enough oompf go get her out again? Slide it on between concrete runways? What? :shock:
Don't you run the risk of a major malfunction even landing on grass? What does that do tou your finish on the skis?
The world wonders...
 
Hi Dave!
My only experience with skiis was as a young man flying with my friend in a Super Cub. We never ventured too far from home and if there wasn't snow, we were putting the wheels back on it. The only problem that we ever encounterd was the aluminum skiis would heat up from friction so upon landing and we would need to put a piece of wood under each skii so it didn't freeze down. I doubt that many people would venture a long cross country with just skiis. On the other hand, I have landed with wheels many times on frozen lakes if there isn't much snow and the ice is fairly smooth. We have lots of potential runways during an open winter in Minnesota. :D
 
As I may have said ages ago, my Cruisemaster was originally approved for use, and equipped, with skis by its original owner in Alaska. The logbook entry would be laughed out of any FSDO today, "Skis fitted using the approved method," and nothing more :)

Apropos of nothing, I hear tell that those retractable skis - the ones that expose the wheels for no-snow, and lower beneath the wheels if there is snow - are frightfully expensive.

Jonathan
 
The majority of our flying comunity here uses ski's in the winter. I definately log more hours in cubs and husky's on skis in the winter than in my cruisemaster. We do fly cross country trips, the majority of the airports that we stop into have areas that other ski pilots have been using off the side of the runway, or snow covered grass strips. This is much to many a airport managers dissapointment . We use what are called Sled Dog's to taxi and hanger the aircraft, these are small wheels on an axle that fit into the ski bellow the aircraft axle, you prop the aircraft up onto the wheel with a leverage bar on the Sled Dog axel and use a cotter pin to pin the wheel in place. The trick if you have been sitting on your skis is to give the tip of the ski a quick lift, or if you fly a heavy aircraft I have heard of people parking on pine bows. The plus side to a straight ski is the decreased weight, hydraulic wheel skis tend to run in the $10,000 range and add 150lbs. If you go to http://www.backcountrypilot.org and check out BRD's photo galery there are some great shots of us ski flying. One of the fella's produces a DVD for float and ski flying as well, I would be more than happy to send you a copy if you are interested in Ski Flying. BRD has pictures listed on http://www.pix.tckid.net as well. Flying skis is a true art and I would debate that it is even more fun than flying floats.
 
I am interested in it (ALL aspects of flying for that matter), but doubt I'll ever do it. Not much chance of that heah in th' Sunny South :)
Still wondering what a pilot is to do if he runs out of snow or ice.
Can you take off from grass without snow?
Can you land on grass w/o snow and not wreck the skis?
Afterward if you don't have a dolly to set the skis on, how do you taxi w/o snow or ice?
Seems like it would take an awful lot of HP to overcome ski drag on the ground.
 
Straight ski's would take a big time beating on anything other than snow or ice. With the Sled Dog wheels attached to the skis one can taxi across tarmac. These wheels should be removed or manualy put in the up position before normal operations. If one were to land on grass with straight skis they might find a wind screen full of green and on their nose. One of the fellas did accidentaly land on tarmac with hydraulic wheel skis in the down position in a Husky A1B, he had a major battle to keep from going over the front, the wear strips had to be replaced and some plastic repaired on the bottom of the ski. Go to http://pix.tckid.net/gallery2/v/BradT/album28/1892A_New_Years_Weekend_2005.jpg.html and you will see the wheels that I am talking about.
 
I remember a missionary flying something on floats landing on the grass at the Reading Air Show c. 1974. He took off and came around to land again. Might have been a Maule (love the Viking tail they put on that) but really can't remember anything else.

Sorry I don't have a similar ski story :oops:
 
It seems that some float operators have no problem at all operating floats off of snow and wet grass. There is a J3 Cub on floats that I see flying snow on floats at fly-in's. I wonder what kind of condition his floats and airframe are in, wow. One fellow 206 operator decided he was going to fly his bird into Eveleth grass strip to change over to wheels, we looked at him strange, and for some reason he had a nice set of brand new amphibs the next year. I am sure that it had nothing to do with landing on a heavy seaplane on turf.
 
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