I returned to Alaska this summer to fly a beaver on floats for a fishing lodge. Since my wife had never made the trip we decided to take the Husky and camp along the way. This makes the fourth round trip the Husky has made to Alaska without a hitch. I have been itching to put extended gear on the plane for years and finally decided to go for it. I contacted Jeff at Seaplanes North and they got everything set up for me to do the gear swap in the two days of downtime that I would have in Anchorage. They even arranged to have the gear painted to match the plane.

I was due for new bungees and new SGS bumpstops anyway so those were installed at the time of the swap. Though the gear is still the Husky design it is very apparent looking at it that it is much stronger than the stock gear and the workmanship is excellent (built by Atlee Dodge). Taxiing and takeoff it is hard to tell any difference at all other than having to stretch just a little more to see. On landings the new gear was really eye opening. Husky's can hardly be described as twitchy to begin with but what little there was absolutely disappears. You can bring the plane in with a much higher sink rate and the gear would rather squat than bounce. It also soaks up bumps and ruts way better than stock gear, seems to plough right through them with very little input needed by the pilot.The plane is far more stable and resists changing direction unless you ask it to. I was worried about speed loss from the lack of fairings but in the end it seemed like a couple knots at most. I considered it a 100 knot plane with 31's and stock gear and still consider it a 100 knot plane.

For Husky owners looking at extended gear I can't speak highly enough of this setup. I can't think of anywhere that you can physically take a Husky that I wouldn't be comfortable taking this gear, whereas I was constantly worried about it stock.

One more shoutout for Jeff and Keith at Seaplanes North. They did a fantastic job and even took several hours on a Saturday to fix a small fitment issue I had. Great people, a great shop and a great product.

More pictures? Looks cool in your avatar!

More pictures? Looks cool in your avatar!

Here are some pictures. I had to run yesterday before I could post them. Believe it or not the Avatar picture was taken with the stock gear at Reklaw two years ago.