Has any one heard?

[TheSoccerMom]

Hitting hardpacked snow isn't usually a good thing -- so landing a wheeled airplane in any snow is a bit of a pucker -- so we were very happy that it was a cold, sunny, DRY day in January when we landed in the horse pasture.  Crusty snow probably wold have flipped us upside down when the wheels caught.  But, it was a beautiful landing...  looked like one of those corny car commercials where yuppies are out skimming through 3 feet of fluffy snow in their $50,000 SUV with blissful looks on their faces.   

[Baradium]

Hitting hardpacked snow isn't usually a good thing -- so landing a wheeled airplane in any snow is a bit of a pucker -- so we were very happy that it was a cold, sunny, DRY day in January when we landed in the horse pasture.  Crusty snow probably wold have flipped us upside down when the wheels caught.  But, it was a beautiful landing...  looked like one of those corny car commercials where yuppies are out skimming through 3 feet of fluffy snow in their $50,000 SUV with blissful looks on their faces.   

I land on hardpacked snow every day?

I think we have different definitions though...  the hardpacked snow we land on is about like landing on pavement, just without as good braking action.

[airtac]

Groundspeed vs airspeed and downwind turns---I guess not everything can be looked up in a book (while you're flying), sometimes experience helps--although I did read a book  once--Tom Sawyer it was, I liked the part about Aunt Polly making him wear shoes, now I could relate to that!

[FlyboyGil]

Groundspeed vs airspeed and downwind turns---I guess not everything can be looked up in a book (while you're flying), sometimes experience helps--although I did read a book  once--Tom Sawyer it was, I liked the part about Aunt Polly making him wear shoes, now I could relate to that!

LOL!!  Airtac, let me have what you're having! 

[TheSoccerMom]

I land on hardpacked snow every day?

I think we have different definitions though...  the hardpacked snow we land on is about like landing on pavement, just without as good braking action.

I thought it was clear this wasn't a runway, it was an unknown opening in a mountain valley.  It turned out to be a horse pasture (which we only learned because the rancher told us when he picked us up in his pickup), and there was no way to know if the snow was 2" deep, or 25" deep.  A crust on snow WILL flip you ---  I'm not talking about some smooth layer of packed stuff people have been landing on all week.  I've done enough intentional snow landings since then, to not want to play with a frozen crust and tear up an airplane.

It's very obvious we have different definitions.  I was talking about an emergency landing into a completely unknown area.  You're talking about something entirely removed from that.

   

[Baradium]

I was trying to make a funny because that's the first thing I thought of.   Lighten up.     

[tundra_flier]

Dry snow also has a lot to do with temperature.  If it's well below freezing it doesn't matter how much moisture is in it, it's all frozen.  At -40F everything is dry. 
Most of the winter there are no fears of icing in Alaska (at least not in the interior), it's just too cold.  Of course it was +39 today, so that statement is obviously a generalization.

Phil