Flying in Snow (For Beginners)

Sometimes it's nice to simply get a clear day, blue skies and gentle, calm winds. Other days, you're not quite as lucky. Recently, after a sudden downpour of snowfall overnight, I was keen to finally try some 'aeroplane skiing'. Unfortunately, the winds were high, the snow was still coming down, and the temperatures were rather chilly, to say the least. Here's the video, full of fails and a few laughs. 

The Design of the Skis:

As a Mighty Mini, the FT Scout is very easy to build little skis from. They're even kind of cute. All they consist of is two strips of thin 2mm plywood bent into shape. You could easily make yours from Flite Test's waterproof foam board though. 

I used a kettle to help bend the plywood into that ramped up ski shape. You could do the same as it seemed to work. 

Balsa wood cubes were added to the wooden stips and drilled so that the landing gear axils could be passed through. The finishing touch was adding two pieces of elastic to keep the skis at an upright angle of attack. This helps with landings. Check out this RCTestFlight video to see how this works. Daniel was a little more successful than I.

Here's what we learned

Firstly, choose a great location, with smooth snow. My little FT Scout found it way too bumpy. As a mini, it couldn't cope. As the field was just a farmers field (which we had permission to use), the ground was inherently uneven from ploughing and seeding from earlier in the year. A large garden lawn would have been better - or we could just have waited for more snow to even it out. 

Secondly, make sure your plane is set up right. We hadn't tested the skis before and, subsequently, had some issues with the Centre of Gravity (CG). A few test flights prior to trying to fly in strong winds may have helped with our experience on the day. 

Finally, we learned that the experience and having lots of fun was more important than the wellbeing of the aircraft. This little plane has been through a lot. It's had more crashes than many of my other planes put together. At one point I was tempted to discourage my friend Phil from having a go considering the weather and the fact that he hadn't flown in four years (I know, crazy!). Thankfully, I came to my senses and realised that the worst that could happen is that an old plane would be written off and we'd have a funny story to share. So build your planes tough and fly them like you stole them. 

Remember to have fun and create some fun stories of your own.

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Thanks for checking out this article and the video above. I really appreciate the support and kind words you guys have been giving me recently.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article and are looking forward to more from the Project Air channel in the future. Thanks again!

- James.