First time on skis!
 

Well, earlier this week I put some skis on my Airmadillo! I put the gear in the tail dragger configuration (this was my first time flying as a tail dragger). It is a lot more difficult to taxi. One thing I was told about flying with skis is that the skis produce lift. Wow, that was true!! I throttled up and as soon as my tail lifted it was off! It went pretty much straight up and almost stalled. So, make sure you trim your elevator to compensate for that.

Right when I took off, the wind "Murphy's Law" kicked up! The great thing about flying off snow is that you can always change your approach! Perfect landing!!

I'm looking forward to another Utah snow dump! I have several months left to perfect my snow ski flights!!

Happy flying!!

Mike

RE: First time on skis!
 

It is a blast. When taxiing, keep full up elevator to keep the tail on the ground, but don't taxi fast. It can ground loop. Get in the habbit of giving right rudder as you increase throttle so it doesn't turn left. There are 4 factors making it turn left so it will do it. There is no friction from the nose gear to stop it, so you notice it more.

It is a blast. Touch and goes in the powder is second only to touch and goes on a glassy lake! Way cool. [8D]

RE: First time on skis!
 

Great! I was wondering why it was going to the left so easily. I did several ground loops! Ahhh the joys of learning!

RE: First time on skis!
 

I made some skis from aluminum for a cub once, but never got around to trying it out.
I'd be curious to see your ski configuration.
Do you have a close up photo of how you built them?

Mine were spring loaded to prevent the tips from going toe-down.
And I had a pre-cut tube that each spring was inside of so that they woudn't be too much toe-up either.
I always wondered if they'd have worked.

RE: First time on skis!
 

I used Du-Bro snow skis and Landing gear for a .60 sized aircraft. The skis worked great! I would say that the setup was around $30.

RE: First time on skis!
 

I put some Dubro skis on one of my planes and filmed the flight and parachute drop, edited the footage and added some music. This was actually only my second flight with a real plane but, my first on skis. I flew it last Sat. 01/21/2005 off of a lake near my house. I would be happy to share it but, it's compressed as a real media video and I cannot upload it. Any suggestions?

RE: First time on skis!
 

Flying from snow is much like flying from water except for the gloves, boots, long-johns, coat and earmuffs.
I fly float planes from both and it's a ball, you can land and take off from any direction.
I've not used skis but I can only imagine that their not as stable as floats but I'm sure I'll try them sometime.
May try doing T&G's off the lake with skis...

RE: First time on skis!
 

Skis are the easiest thing possible. All I did is replace the wheels with Dubro skis and off I went. Taking off from a frozen lake with snow on it is great. I hope to put floats on the same plane and take off from the same lake in the spring. What things should I consider when buying/installing floats on my .40 plane?

RE: First time on skis!
 

I've used GeeBee blow molded floats, their OK but I like the Falcon Trading floats best of all and they have a kit for mounting floats on any 40/60 size plane with trike gear. www.falcon-trading.com

RE: First time on skis!
 

Thanks. I will definitely get some floats for the spring. The lake near my house creates an endless flying field where noone could/would complain either in snow on the ice or on the water. I guess it's a good thing that I have a boat that can be easily dropped in the water that has a powerful motor.

Do floats require more pulling power to get the plane out of the water. I have a few different engines but for the skis I am using an OS .46LA. This engine is a dog but skis require even less power than wheels as the plane slides nicely on top of the snow. I am going to put my OS .46AX back on it. This is a great engine and the plane screamed with that engine installed.

RE: First time on skis!
 

FA,
Floats offer a little more drag so more power will help, I had a OS 46 FX on my World Mach 1 with Falcon floats and had to install my OS 50 FX to get satisfactory performance.

RE: First time on skis!
 

Thanks for the reply CM. I will keep that in mind when I install the floats.

RE: First time on skis!
 

I put Dubro skis on my Avistar. The plane took off great but 2 of the skis spun around like pin wheels! What's the best way to keep them from moving?

Chillybee

RE: First time on skis!
 

Chillybee
If you look close at the ski in the picture you can see the socet head screw that tightens up on the axle. This keeps the ski from rotating up too far by hitting on the ski. The spring loops over the top of the bolt to keep the ski pointed up a little during flight. I had to grind a flat spot in the axle to keep it from rotating and also the axle needs to be tight on the gear to keep the skis where they need to be.

RE: First time on skis!
 

Can anyone tell me how to post a video of my trainer on Dubro skis? I sent it via email to Chillybee. I dropped a paratrooper out in this video also.