Any info on the photo, cause it doesn't look like it matches the story that's linked?
-DP
The tires belong to a 172 taildragger conversion on 31's that flipped landing in a mountain meadow that had about 6 inches of snow. Tires went on to another aircraft that also got long-lined off the Glacier, and the yellow super cub later met the same fate. Glacier is near Whistler, BC, with several helicopter operators handily nearby.
Quote:
"The saga of the cursed Bushweels. The photo with the wheels sticking out is only about 3 weeks after the fact, due to heavy weather in the area. That’s close to 6’ of windblown snow packed down on top of her. Salvage was started soon after to take advantage of the short spell of clear weather.
There’s is some unlucky irony to some of those who got connected to this incident. First off, after the aircraft was written off, the tires soon came into the possession of some hapless soul, who decided to also take a run at that same mountain. He too had to have HIS plane long lined off that hill due to structural damage to the tail. 2 down, one to go. I think he burned the tires after that.
From a third party source we heard soon after, the Cub in the photo had an incident of its own. He was with a pax on a glacier (ski equipped) and couldn’t get airborne with two aboard, so the pax disembarked to lighten the load, on the solo attempt; He ended up sailing off the edge a crevasse and crashed upside down. Unfortunately he sustained some bad injury. The pax meanwhile tried to flag down some help by writing words of greeting in the snow.
At the time it was difficult to understand why the Cessna went over, cause the snow packed down by the wind seemed so well consolidated. This was quite some time ago now, and Bushwheels were still kinda new, and they were seen as a go anywhere option, But like the way the 4x4 vehicle is perceived by the public with its aire of invincibility, they are often the ones most likely to end up in the ditch.
There are now plenty of pics and stories on the net of big footed planes on their backs, the result of interfacing with surprisingly light snow depths. The lesson learned from all of this is, Don’t try landing in snow with any sized wheels, it’s consistency is difficult to predict from the air, even if it’s only a few inches in depth. That's what skis are for."
2nd crash of the same tires, nearby glacier.
and the super cub, change of temp caused sticky skis, maybe "Help" would have been better than "Hello"
