8322 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:31 pm
But I'd love to have skis, my parents live on the perfect runway lake though so I really want to. very long and narrow for a lake, it runs North and South and is private so not a lot of activity or fishing shanties, and I can go hop on a sled ahead of time to make sure no idiot left a spearing hole open or whatnot.
Sounds like you are an experienced ski flyier, if you don't mind let me ask you a few questions?
Thank you,
I would say average, I don't have 500hrs on skis, but a good 10-15hrs per season for the past 10 years. So just enough to have seen a few situations
8322 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:31 pmHow hard are they typically to put on and off? As we don't get the solid snow cover winters here anymore.
Good questions. I have the straight skis Federal, the ones we see very often. Once the setup is done on the plane, ie the bracket is in place on the legs and that the bungees, limiter cables and safety cables are set on the skis, the change over from wheels to skis takes about 1.5hrs.
So the best thing if you don't get a good cover and if you need to gaz at an airport or that your plane is based from an asphalt strip, then the penetrating skis would be a better option. (Like the Trickair.....somewhat expensive but certified on C140)
8322 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:31 pmHow much Ice do you like before landing on a lake?
They say 1in supports a man, but no way in hell would I walk my lake on 1in of ice. They also say 4inches supports a car, but that too, go explain to your car insurance you just drown your car. LOL
Those measures are based on true bleu ice, the strongest type of ice, which is rarely what we get with so many climate variations we have during the winter.
So to make it short, I'll go to lakes I know. The ones where there is snowmobile trails are getting verified all winter long. I'll go on my lake not under 6 inches, that I was able to check myself drilling a hole. There is also the slush you have to watch for when you start visiting lakes.
8322 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:31 pmIs there a lot of extra stress to the gear and such with Ski's?
On the C140 you have to make long radius turns when the skis are in deep snow. You can imagine that making it sharp puts a lot of stress on the axles, because of the arm the ski creates with the axle and the fact that the ski in deep snow tends to give some side wobbling pulses on the axles (not sure if that is all good english
)
One good reason to have a good visual inspection of the root of the axle at ski changeover. Another reason why the full alu axles or steel axles are preferred for ski operations over the hollow alu axles.
8322 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 05, 2018 6:31 pmI also only have the Scott 2000 on the rear end, so am I really going to be able to go in any deeper snow than I already could with 800 up front without a tail ski?
I spent a complete winter without a tailski and went into all kind of snow. Not the best scenario, but it works. On takeoff you find/feel the point where the wheel is just above snow. This is just enough to put not too much pressure on the main and remove drag from the TW in the snow and gain speed.
To be honest, while we have certified Federal skis on the main, I have never seen a certified tailwheel ski so far on any light planes like the C140 category. We all have fabricated ours. It is a penetrating TW ski that attach directly to the TW fork.
Ho and before JohnC tells me that I have the wrong tension springs on my Scott 3200, I wanted to say that I have changed for the good type spring since that picture was taken