Author Topic: Helicopter buffs, please help!  (Read 4560 times)

Offline Mike

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Helicopter buffs, please help!
« on: October 21, 2009, 11:45:05 PM »
I have another question:

We're putting snow shoes on one of our aircraft but we have two different ones.
Slightly shorter wide ones and also slightly longer skinnier ones.

Is there a difference?
The total surface area seems the same just by looking at it.

Who has snow experience?
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Offline G-man

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Re: Helicopter buffs, please help!
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2009, 12:09:18 AM »
Who has snow experience?

Me...what is the differnce between snowmen and snow women?..  ::whistle::  ::whistle::

Prolly not what you meant huh.... Why dont you call me in the morning---we have full length Ski's and also bear paws for ours---depending upon the job at hand will determine which we install. Basically for deep snow, you need full length skis, for muddy areas and "inches" of snow, you need the "paws".

These are "paws" on Layla:





And these are skis on LaFawnduh:

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Offline Chopper Doc

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Re: Helicopter buffs, please help!
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2009, 03:27:07 AM »
We put bearpaws on everything, all year round.  They keep the skids from sinking in mud, snow, muskeg, etc, keeping the tailrotor outta the weeds, etc.

I've never used the full-length skis, even for winter ops in the mountains or in the arctic.  If the snow is shallow enough to be secure once your settling check is done you're good, and if it's real deep just plant it real good and set it on the belly.  This works better on Bells than A-Stars since the composite belly panels will crack.  Also, one way or another you're gonna take any antennas off the belly.

The one set of skis we have is from a 212 that worked in antarctica for the last twenty years, but we've never used them.

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Offline Oddball

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Re: Helicopter buffs, please help!
« Reply #3 on: October 22, 2009, 07:05:25 AM »
erm tried putting on home made ski's onto a R/C model Pilatus Turbo Porter once. (does this help?)
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Offline G-man

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Re: Helicopter buffs, please help!
« Reply #4 on: October 22, 2009, 03:38:44 PM »
Of course, you could be talking about these I flew with in a former life, they be the biggest ones---lots of fun too:



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Offline Mike

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Re: Helicopter buffs, please help!
« Reply #5 on: October 22, 2009, 05:46:58 PM »
Thanks for the help guys. Never even thought about the belly panel of the AStar Chopper Doc. But I guess that's because I've never flown in the snow  ;)
I don't think full length is an option for us but maybe we can have Gman give us some trainining before we do the job.....
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