Hi there.

Since no-one else has responded, I'll throw my $0.02(Canadian) of snow experience in. I was at the field about 5 times last winter on Skis (maybe 7 flights in total). I was flying an UltraSport 40+ with .40 size DuBro Skis.

The first time I was there the snow was about 6" deep, but it was the first (real) snow of the season, it was true "powder" snow, really really fluffy. It was not able to support the weight of the plane for long. Taxiing, and take-off was very very difficult. I would put the plane on the snow, and throttle up... the plane would move about an inch, and then sink a few inches into the snow. The snow was sow powdery that even though the prop arc was going more than an inch through the snow, there was no noticable change in RPM. My take-off that day consisted of going to full throttle, sinking into the snow, and ploughing (prop in the snow) for about 6 feet, at which point the plane "popped" up on to the snow and was airborne about 6feet later. A few days later I spoke to another club member who said he had been at the field the same day as me (but later), and he said the snow was perfect with his float-plane.

None of my subsequent visits to the field were the same. We often get warmer days (above freezing), and that causes a crust to form on the snow. This crust is more than enough to support a plane on skis. So, even with an inch or so of fresh snow over a crust is just fine with skis.

Bottom line, the floats are good for some snow, but not all snow.... feel like Miss Smilla? On the whole I would say that for me, in Toronto, Skis are more practical than floats, especially because of the aerodynamic differences between them. For what it's worth, I did not have to change the plane's trim with skis on. It was a real challenge getting my OS46FX to run nicely though (or even start).

I'll include a pic for reference (proof...). In the picture you can see two "channels" one to the right of me, and one between me and my wife(taking the picture). This channels are previous attempts to take-off, where the plane "ploughed" though the snow for a number of feet. The engine in this picture is running at a high idle. I also had full "up" elevator, a habit from less snowy days (to prevent nose-over), but in this snow it just turned my elevators into a snow-brake (The counter-balance of the elevators dug into the snow and "scooped" it up...).

gus