Ultralight aircraft ski's, making ski's for ultralights and ultralight aircraft.
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I can't take credit for this
idea... I found it in the EAA Experimenter magazine -- the December 1997
issue. I'm sure
 these would work as well on most any
ultralight. If you check out my
Cobra page, you'll notice I had a
similar set of ski's on it. I really put them to the test on crusty
snow, and areas dug up by skimobiles. There is nothing like being
able to land on all those frozen lakes!!
Here they are, in all their
glory! Children's snowboards from the local dept. store!! $17
each -- and not even on sale!
I like these ones because they
have grooves on the bottom to hide bolt heads in! |
I whipped up a little plan
and started cutting. I just used what was available in my shop --
some 1/4 birch plywood, a couple pieces of spruce and good old white
pine. |
The length is 16", they are
3"deep and 7" tall.
The piece of 1/4" ply you see running
left and right on top of the bottom piece of pine, is to strengthen the
pine laterally, and provide something extra strong to screw
into.
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Here they are glued
together. I used T-88 epoxy for everything.
I made a base out
of 1/2" 9-ply birch plywood, and I epoxyed and screwed it on.
The small strips on the top and bottom are 1/4" scraps and are to
allow for the curveature of the snowboard. |
Here's a view of those
handy-dandy grooves to hide bolt heads in. The slots are where the
boot straps had been.
I used 1/4" grade 5 bolts, fender washers and
nylon stop nuts to fasten to the board. |
I used my drill press to
drill the 3/4" holes I needed for my 303 axle to fit.
The left side of
the ski's is the front -- it's slightly longer.
Later I will add eye
bolts to the nose and tail to attatch the travel-limiting
cables. |
 Here they are -- Tah,
Dah! I obviously had a slight lack of snow for this picture... it
got warm and rainy for a week... but they fit on there nice.
Next I
have to add the All-Important cables, and a bungee cord to the nose of
each ski to keep the tips up.
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 AAAAAAAGGHH!!! That's more like
it! Plenty of snow!
The skis worked out great! I tried a
mini-ski on the tailwheel, but found that I could hold the tail up just as
well with the stick when taking off.
Now to explore some frozen lakes!!
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Here's a couple pics from
the original article in the Experimenter. This fellow used sheet
metal make his ski's. See the travel-limiting cables? VERY
important!!
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Covering the World of Ultralight Aviation
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