Ski Club

Max places Clippy on the line at the Hoosick Aeromodelers

I've only been out flying off of skis once this year. That was last weekend with my grandson Max. We put Du-Bro Snobird skis on his Nexstar and flew off the home field.
Of course one of them flopped straight down right after takeoff, hanging like a speed brake! Max flew out the flight anyway, good practice flying a plane with a problem. I took it back to "ditch" it, hoping to flop it down in the brush without the ski hanging up on anything, but I missed the mark and set her down in two inches of snow and promptly ripped the mains out. (See, it's not something I do only at the club field!)

Well, in true Engleville Bush Pilots Academy form, we headed for the Eagle's nest (the shop) and cobbed some wheels onto the Moose. Second flight was nice and uneventful, until Max declared "I'm going to land it.".

Max is a serious student pilot.

Max is ten years old, has a number of hours on sim, and quite a few instructor flights. His last attempt at landing was a great approach which drifted a little right after coming through the key. At the Bush Pilots Academy, we land on a postage-stamp runway about 20 feet wide and 100 feet long, and I still scrub off to the side once in a while myself!

His first approach was high, and I grabbed control to show him a centerline pass descending through the key. He took it back and duplicated my pass, dropped it in about two-thirds up the runway, about a foot off-center. The plane set down in the inch-and-a-half of snow, rolled out about ten feet, and stopped on the runway, wheels-down and idling! Cheers and congrats all around as Max makes his first successful landing, a perfect one at that! He's ready to solo!

I throttled up to taxi to the "top" of the runway (it's a bit inclined), and as I rolled across the concrete-hard frozen grass, I ripped out the remaining cobbed mains block, and we were done for the day.

Max in the Eagle's nest with his Nexstar "Moose".
(When it still had wheels)

I'll dig through the archives for some snow-fly pictures.

How about you? Done any ski flying this winter? Have any pictures to share?

Is anyone interested in doing some ski-flying? Maybe off Franklinton Vlaie?
I've flown off Engleville Pond near home. What could be better, perfectly flat and wide open.

Oh, but watch out for the tip-ups when taxiing!

Wheels down!

Scott (Skip) O'Connor