Right - hopefully these photos work or this post is gonna suck...

Over the last couple of years we have had small cuts and scrapes on our Alaskan Bushwheels. I guess this stuff is run of the mill, although it often generates questions from other pilots.





Pretty minor right?

Well today I noticed something a little less joyful, after parking up in the hangar. I had just finished an evening's STOL practice, so, landing slow and braking hard. Mostly on grass with occasional sharp rocks embedded.

Yikes! This cut has gotta be 8" long and 1/8th deep (200mm long by 2 or 3mm deep).




Fortunately no cords showing. Still...
Perhaps I should stop braking so hard unless I really need to... I do like to stay current with a lot of practice, and we do go places which require full brakes immediately after the wheels touch down and spin up.

My question is, is this common and just par for the course? Am I doing it wrong?

Bob Breeden told me to lower my pressure when I commented on the exact same issue. I was running, at first, at the factory recommended min (for the Airstreaks anyway) of 6 lbs.The way he explained it was think of a toy balloon, at a high level of inflation, as compared to the same balloon inflated just enough to be roundish. Which do you think will break easier when shoved up against something rough, which will have more give? For the last several years I have never again gone that high, mostly 3 or 4.5 psi, that seems to help. As does, of course, planning to keep turns on rough rock to a min. even if it sometimes means a less then optimum take off area, if it saves making a 180 on the rough stuff

I had one big gash very similar to yours, deep enough to make me glue a big tire patch over it, this gave me a out of round galumph galumph while taxiing on concrete. The solution (close enough anyway) was to fair that patch in with Herculiner bed liner, like you feather in a drywall patch! And, to avoid long taxis on pavement. I'm sure it's out of balance but I'm airborne before it's an issue. That was over 1,000 hrs ago, and couldn't even tell you which tire it was now, subsequent coats of bed liner have made it hard to even find.

That is a really good point. Thanks for your advice.

I have been running them at higher pressure (within limits), in the hopes of making them last longer when I have to taxi over concrete.
I let the pressure down before going off airport.

I can certainly let some air out and leave it that way.