aktahoe1 wrote:Where is the bottom photo taken? Alaska Range?

Top picture is at Iditarod, Ak. and the bottom pic is at Puntilla Lake in the Alaska Range east side, close to Rainy Pass.

180Marty wrote:Low and Slow, Next time you see Ray ask him if he used skis on the 206 years ago. I think he might have but wouldn't bet a million$$$. He hauled some friends of mine into Monumental Creek a long time ago when they were building a cabin there---probably not the 206 though.

Marty -

Hunting season ended yesterday, so there's a pretty good chance I won't run into Ray until spring.

I'd bet he ran a 206 on skis at some point. I know McCall Air Taxi did for a while. From the stories I've heard, nobody was real pleased with them in the backcountry here. They all prefer 185s, or even 170s.

John

DonC wrote:

aktahoe1 wrote:Where is the bottom photo taken? Alaska Range?

Top picture is at Iditarod, Ak. and the bottom pic is at Puntilla Lake in the Alaska Range east side, close to Rainy Pass.

Curious how the 206 outperformed 185's on skis. Was the 206 turboed? Or just the difference between straight skis and hydraulic ones?

You are correct it was the difference between straight skis and the wheel skis. Wheel skied 206 were a dog in any kind of snow but had the ability to land on wheels on dry airports. My planes were not turboed.

However the C206 on straight skis would out perform a straight skied C185 as well. The main difference was the amount of floatation with the 3 skis on the 206. On hard pack it was closer but in deep snow there was no comparison. Had a standing offer of, follow me , till one of us gets stuck, title for title.......no one ever took me up on it
Of course the big disadvantage is not being able to land on dry runways. That being said I have landed and taken off on grass and gravel and taxied across 100 yards of dry pavement in Nome to the fuel pumps after landing on the snow berms along the runway. Then took off on a gravel taxiway with just a trace of snow. ( not because I wanted to ) Surprisingly when I removed the skis in the spring there were no signs of wear and tear on the bottoms. No one was more surprised then me The Landis skis have metal skags on the bottoms that run full length on the sides that protected the bottoms.

once&futr_alaskaflyer wrote:

DonC wrote:

aktahoe1 wrote:Where is the bottom photo taken? Alaska Range?

Top picture is at Iditarod, Ak. and the bottom pic is at Puntilla Lake in the Alaska Range east side, close to Rainy Pass.

Curious how the 206 outperformed 185's on skis. Was the 206 turboed? Or just the difference between straight skis and hydraulic ones?

DonC wrote:...I have landed and taken off on grass and gravel and taxied across 100 yards of dry pavement in Nome to the fuel pumps after landing on the snow berms along the runway. Then took off on a gravel taxiway with just a trace of snow. ( not because I wanted to ) Surprisingly when I removed the skis in the spring there were no signs of wear and tear on the bottoms. No one was more surprised then me

I remember looking at the belly of a twin that landed gear up on gravel, and being shocked that it didn't look worse. Except for a busted off antenna, I would never have guessed from the belly skins that it had landed gear up. I would have expected a far worse appearance.

Watched our chief pilot land our single otter on anphips at Bettles, AK, gear up on gravel. Lifted it up with fork lift and put the gear down. After inspection no obvious damage actually it was a good thing he left the gear up. He landed down wind and stopped with 400 ft left of the 5000 ft runway With the poor brakes on the A/C he probably would have run off the end..........