pburns wrote:It's been "deep" enough here where I couldn't get out the taxiway. Like Aqua described, we only have a couple of feet, but a very dense layer with a crust about a foot down. The owner of the hanger where I have the plane for the winter just bought our "solution" I am hoping to get out today. He groomed up the taxiway Friday.

Pete

Nice! That should do a great job of grooming. Those crusts can bite you, especially if you don’t know they’re there.

MTV

I'm curious how the plates attach. Does anyone have any pictures? I've read it can be done relatively painlessly in the field?

These might not be a bad option for me. I don't like the idea of plumbing heavy expensive retractable skis, our snow in Denver melts too quickly for straights. I can imagine installing the plates after getting out of the front range.

The ones I've seen are a "lipped" plate fitting the dimensions of the wheel cut out and held in place by the wheel itself. The tire is deflated, the plate is inserted and the the tire is re-inflated to hold it "in situ"

Following up on the Schneider skis...I have a American Champion Scout and just bought a set of Schneider skis and looking for the Drawings for the Bellanca 7 and 8 series install, Unfortunatly Mr Schneider is not well and cant produce the drawings...If anyone has a copy of them, I bought the STC from Rick, But i need the drawings number..SWS-4000-B7

pburns wrote:It's been "deep" enough here where I couldn't get out the taxiway. Like Aqua described, we only have a couple of feet, but a very dense layer with a crust about a foot down. The owner of the hanger where I have the plane for the winter just bought our "solution" I am hoping to get out today. He groomed up the taxiway Friday.

Pete

Having a groomer like that is pure magic.

For the OP, the "plates" that folks are referring to are a set of plates that cover the opening for the wheels, essentially converting the penetration ski to (sort of) a straight ski. Of course, that then requires that you REMOVE that plate and re-inflate the tire prior to landing on plowed runways.

MTV