Oh come on Phil, any sissy can fly wheels and asking for spring, our season of mud and slush, sounds like a Texan Talking.
The reality is winter flying is work, but rewarding effort that will teach you more about flying and ones self then any week of easy Sunday loops around the pattern. You can take my word it gets easier as you figure out what works best for your situation. Streamlining the fueling is number one! I'm up in Talkeetna now on the Village strip and I can hop over to Don Lees on Christian Lake to fuel up; way more fun the jerry jugs and I get a couple warm up takeoffs and landings before I head out on a mission.
Number two in our winter equation is utilizing daylight. If you are not prepping in the dark you are going to run out of light. Next month it gets better but then you need the top of the snow to soften up or you will end up rattling loose a few fillings.
Flew up to Caribou lodge yesterday up at 2000 feet in the Talkeetnas, it's only 15 miles out of the village. Had some tea with Bonny and Joe and talked bears caribou and sno-gos...
After over twenty years in the Bristol Bay I'm working a new neighborhood of interior conditions: real snow, tall trees, and altitude we don't have out in King Salmon/Naknek.
Don't laugh about the tall trees, the damn things are everywhere up here!
One reality you need to consider is your location might be more of a wheel ski kind of place. Talk about another learning curve... Hopefully you can hook up with a couple experienced locals to go out and play with. They come in handy when you get stuck.
I know Don Lee up here does mountain/glacier training and has offered to drag me along once we get a little more daylight.
Almost forgot to mention how easy my little tripacer turns on any kind of snow with the big ski under the nose

Rocket

As the saying goes...."You ain't seen nothing yet"...... When you start going to hillsides, as Courierguy noted, things can get REALLY interesting.

One thing I would note, based on that video is that you skiied a loooong ways across that lake on the first go......and there were no tracks. I would be really, REALLY careful with that. You undoubtedly looked the area over from the air to get an idea of obstacles, but what I've found is that once on the surface, if you don't have some reference, as in tracks, to follow, you'll almost certainly gradually depart your "surveyed" line. Now, with fresh snow like you have, and obviously no wind since, that MAY not be an issue. But, you never know when you'll find something frozen into the ice, a small ridge, snow machine track thawed then re-frozen, etc.

I would practice putting down tracks, then working out those tracks to a decent LZ, then move somewhere else and do the same. You're really not learning or developing skills just skiing along through fresh snow. Go work some good LZs in confined areas, near treelines, or on meadows, swamps, fields, etc. That will help to build your evaluation skills, which are absolutely critical when you start operating in the mountains, etc.

Anybody can ski out across a huge lake. But, even that can get you in trouble, so work on the evaluation skills BEFORE you start into tougher terrain.

MTV

A friend and I had a good day out in central VT yesterday.

Rocket, ha ha ha. Actually I will be flying with Don Lee next month, looking forward to that for sure. How long are you in Talkeetna? Next time you are in my neighborhood drop in. Got the same tall trees here but the strip is a bunch wider. Got probably a hundred lakes to play on plus the mountains behind me. Couldn't go up there the past few months cause the wind has been ripping, but nice and quiet now.

MTV, the long lake is really close by. It did have some deep snow machine tracks but it got the same amount of snow I did, about eight inches, so I figured I was good. But thanks for the reminder cause I did go in to a few other lakes I'd never landed before and a couple I skipped the light landing part of the eval. I won't shortcut it again. Kenai Mountains next.

Oh, when I landed that long lake there was maybe a five foot deep layer of light fog over much of it that I hadn't seen from the air. Interesting.

Phil,

Just nagging.... . Mostly I was just suggesting you work some diverse spots to help get the hang of it. I've been rudely surprised a few times in places where I took things for granted, though.

But, basically, learning to turn around on the snow in minimum radius is a really important skill to practice as well as site evaluation. So, just suggesting you take the opportunity during really nice conditions to work on those skills before you know exactly what it takes to work the plane in confined areas.

MTV

Phil
A tail ski would also help with turning now that the chains are hooked up. They are real nice to have in the deep stuff when you have to push a heavy tail around by hand. After a few days with Don you will really open up your range. Let me know if you come up for any of the races.

Rocket
It is fun to fly out west at 10 ft AGL forever, but then that is what you have to do because of that damm wind!!! When they had all the work on main strip I started using village strip, what a blast. But now I get NO exercise when we go for pizza.
DENNY

mtv wrote:Just nagging.... ....

Hey if it will help keep me from doing stupid pilot tricks nag away.

DENNY, will do.

Video from yesterday. Almost as hard to see the snow in the video as it was in the plane. A few landings were just setting up the approach, watching the trees to the side, descending and never seeing the snow surface- not even once I touched down.

This trip I just worked on tight keyhole turns at both ends of my landing. Some of this you can make out if you look close. Really like the Carbon Concept skis with the turned up sides, lets me turn really tight, actually tighter then in the video but I'm trying not to put undo stress on the gear. With these conditions the SQ2 would take off in its own tracks in less distance then the landing took. Nice to be flying in WAY below sea level DA.

I was told that the runway at Soldotna had the snow plowed off but had a good layer of ice so I headed over there to make one landing to try out the Grizzly Claw Ski Drags. They work excellent on ice, really stop the plane quick and provide complete directional control. Very minor help on hard pack crusty snow. No help at all on soft snow.

https://vimeo.com/255424477

I get my tightest turn arounds when landing up hill, but beware of ANY minor side slope when doing this. I always try and set up so I am not only landing up the main slope, but also making my turn around into any double fall line. Trying to turn around with even a very minor side slope greatly increases the radius, and I've suffered major leg charley horses from pushing on the rudder pedal so hard This pic is about my min. radius, and I do have tail wheel steering with a tail ski, required I believe for these kind of turns. One of the great, and educational things about ski flying (and one I miss in the summer) is making a landing, then after the takeoff, getting to eyeball your tracks.

The weather is fantastic. Sunny. 43 degrees. About two feet of snow. And I can't go flying because I cracked a rib. Actually I could go flying I just can't push the plane around in the snow and I already learned in a previous lesson that on skis she goes where she wants too. Damn I wish Spring was here and I was on wheels, I'd be flying. So today's lesson is don't step into the open hatch of your crawl space and cracked your rib on the way down. 45 degree days, long days, sunshine, and I'm dying here not going flying. Anyone have a small violin?

Barnstormer wrote:The weather is fantastic. Sunny. 43 degrees. About two feet of snow. And I can't go flying because I cracked a rib. Actually I could go flying I just can't push the plane around in the snow and I already learned in a previous lesson that on skis she goes where she wants too. Damn I wish Spring was here and I was on wheels, I'd be flying. So today's lesson is don't step into the open hatch of your crawl space and cracked your rib on the way down. 45 degree days, long days, sunshine, and I'm dying here not going flying. Anyone have a small violin?

Ouch! You’re right.....tugging and/or pushing a ski plane around wouldn’t be much fun with a busted rib. If it’s any consolation, that 45 degree temp MAY make the snow conditions less than ideal for skis anyway.

But, March brings longggg days and lots of sunshine.....my favorite time of year in the interior, at least.

MTV

Just got in from 2 hours on skis. After having to shut down twice to tail plane while on wheels. Could not follow a barely winding trail on wheels because of hard slick snow; wheels had no traction for braking. Finally got to my road/strip and took off. Pumped skis down and spent over and hour landing in wet snow. Worked really well in the snow. Had a few bumps from old drifts but fun day. Landed, taxied to road and pumped skis up and headed for the hanger.