Cold Duck wrote:Nizina,
I forgot to provide an update once the AOSS was finished on my Husky. The total labor cost was $12,000. Steve Pierce did a great job on the project. I probably spent a little extra since he remade some belly skins rather than providing a patch where the former gear was located. I hope that this makes sense, but I don't like patches and Steve is a great fabricator, so the installation looks like Aviat did it, or better!
The performance is astounding: I can drop it on a hard surface at an alarming descent rate and get virtually no bounce. When off airport and descending agressively, no bounce whatsoever. The stock Husky gear would not perform like this, if you were descending at much more than a few feet per minute right at touch down, it would rebound and bounce. Also, no banging sounds when rolling on rough ground. I had the SGS mod on the Husky gear and it made less banging, but was still not ideal. While many Husky owners don't land on rough terrain, I do and this is a very worthwhile modification for this activity. The new gear and system is very durable and isn't as hard on the airframe. It is somewhat like putting springs and shocks on an old covered wagon, wow, what a nice ride we have now!
Gary Fields
Gary
The labor cost doesn't surprise me for the AOSS conversion. George Mandes has done the conversions on at least three of his Huskys, and there was a lot of welding involved, as I understand. Apparently Burl helped out with the first instillation and then it got easier after that.
It sounds like you really like the conversion. George is really high on it as well. He has even modified the gear to accept Thomas' RF 8001 wheel skis. I might be wrong, but I think that the Aviat factory is now offering the AOSS as an option for its new production line models. At the present time I do have the SGS kit installed, but I am highly coveting the AOSS gear (Just need to do a little bit more consulting here). If I plop it down with my 31s I can expect a pretty good bounce -- not desirable in tight spots.
Thanks for the update and enjoy
Nizina
