thatchf137

I am getting a GWS E-Starter for Christmas and Its going to be terrible waiting all winter long for a field to dry up from all the snow. I have seen Pictures of planes with skis on them but is that a smart thing to do for a new flier--I have flown some on my friends GWS Pico J-3 (not the slow stick) to the point that I have a pretty good feel for it--to try? Any info you have on flying in winter, I'd appreciate.

Thanks
Thatcher

Spudvr

Hey, I'm the friend that owns the GWS j3, i just bought the dubro skis online. i hope that they arnt too heavy, ill keep you posted on how they fly (maybe pics). i live in VT and we got about 5in of snow today!! YAY!!
keep you posted,
Spud

proptop

My Feedback: (8)

I took the landing gear off of my GWS Zero and just hand launch it, and belly it onto the snow. Helps when there's a bit of a crust on it ...Forget about flyin' a small plane on snow unless there's a crust on the snow, cuz the skis (no matter what size they are) will just sink down in... If there's a good ice layer then you don't even need skis...

Hanger-Flyer

Hey, you could always put the plane on its back and have it make little airplane snow angels. (sorry...I couldn't resist being a smarty pants)

Airborne 2007

Hey im glad you got snow too. Im in western Iowa and we got about 3 or so inches last night/today. So i got to try out the skis that i made finally. I made them about 2 months ago. I used them on my Aerobird, and just tested them in my front yard (ie. lined it op with about a 6-8mph wind and went about a little over 3/4 to a little less than full throttle and it was off in about 15ft. When about a foot off the ground for a few feet and landed.) The Aerobird weighs 17oz. probably a little more with the skis, and it has a 380 motor. They are made of the paint stirring sticks-you could use thin ply-wood and maybe balsa, and the plastic off of 1 gallon milk jugs. You just cut the wood at a nice curve at the front and straight on the bottom. You don't even have to run it all the way to the end of the ski if you don't want it. A few things i would change if a made another pair would be- 1) Make them about an inch longer and about a 1/4 to 1/2in wider 2)Make the curve on the front of the ski continue up for about another inch. You can see on mine that they aren't very tall on the front. So to keep the skis from digging i had to make the front strings shorter, raising the front of the ski off the ground. This also made my tail come off the ground about a 1/2in because the plane wanted to lean forward some. This is probably good though since i didn't make a tail ski. Hope this helps.

The first pic is of the main skis that i made. The top ski looks like the one side is short, but the plastic just curled up. The strings just run up to my wing hold down dowels.
The second pic is a tail ski that i somewhere on the internet. It's shown on a tiger moth.

-John

Airborne 2007

Oh, I'd say if you can take off the ground with wheels, or, in my case, if you never have because the landing field is too rough, you probably could. This was my first off the ground take off. Just leave some extra landing room because it likes to slide awhile longer than with just wheels. Good luck.

-John

WacoFlyer

I have a Wingo i recently purchased and thoght of the same snow problem. To fix this i just thought i would order the skis, yeah that sounds easy enough but they were out of stock[:@], so i had to buy the floats for the wingo instead. I attached the floats to the Wingo and it took off and landed from the icy snow great.

thatchf137

Sounds good. When I get everything set up I'll let u guys know how it goes.
Thatcher

thatchf137

Sounds good. When I get everything set up I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Thatcher