Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: Joe & Marian Beck
To Ian Holland,I've used skis on my Pietenpol quite a lot over the 28 years Ihave been flying it. Except for being a bit cool, the Pietenpolis a great skiplane.Most of the time I used Federal A1500A skis and, at present,am using a pair of ancient Federal SC 1 skis I acquired a fewyears back. Both pairs work just fine, and are light in weight.A friend used to make water skis of oak back in the early1970'sand he made a pair for me to use on the Pietenpol. I welded uppedestals from steel tubing, varnished the topsides and waxed the undersides. Rigging was according to standard aircraft prac-tice. Birch aircraft plywood 1/4 inch thick was glued to the top-sides under the pedestal and 1/8 inch birch ply was used at thenose and tail for reinforcement. A 1/8 inch by 1 inch piece of ironran from nose to tail to act as a "keel" and take some of the wear.The oak boards were unlaminated pieces 10 inches wide, 4.5 ft.long and about 7/8 inch thick. He soaked them in water for severaldays and then clamped them in a form for a couple of weeks todry. They held their shape well.I used these skis for several seasons, but retired them when myFederal A1500A skis became available when I sold my Taylorcraft. The unlaminated oak boards had developed longitudinal cracks,and I removed the pedestals, etc. to rework them and put epoxyin the cracks. Never did this, and finally gave them to a friend lastyear for his Pietenpol. These oak "boards" worked well on the Piet-enpol, particularly in deep snow, but were a bit heavy. I suggest that anyone building a set of wooden skis go the laminat-ing route which would facilitate putting in the bends. One could evenbuild up a laminated streamlined pedestal instead of a metal one!Another option would be to build a "cage" to drop (or roll) the wheelinto, leaving the wheels installed. Years ago, Call Air in Wyomingproduced a setup like this and it worked well. A friend had a PiperPacer with Call Air skis and really liked the system. Unfortunately,he sold those skis with the airplane; otherwise, I would get them formy Vagabond because we have LOTS of snow this winter (in cen-tral Alberta, Canada) . By the way, where do you live? Anyway, I have no plans but have perhaps provided you and otherswith some "food for thought". Graham Hansen________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: Graham Hansen
After two weeks of -25 to -38 C weather, we ended up with an almostspring like day at a whole +2C! Of course, what did we do but go icefishing. Before someone jumps in, we caught a lot of ice, but no fish. Icould look west from where we were and see the smoke from the hydrogenerating plant 30 km away. The lake was covered with about 3 inches ofsnow and was almost three feet thick. we werec fishing in about 20fathoms (120 feet) and as I sat there I looked at about 100 sqare milesof perfect landing for a plane. This is a long way round to ask if anyone has, or has seen any plans for a set of skis for a Piet? I ambuilding the landing gear as we speak and could certainly see flying inweather such as we had today. Actually, a 150 could have set down onwheels with no problems. I am going with the C90 brakes and wheels fromTracy O'Brien. The Cub type gear is ideal for skis and I can see a setgetting built.Any body got any plans?________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By: Ted Brousseau
>To Ian Holland,>>I've used skis on my Pietenpol quite a lot over the 28 years I>have been flying it. Except for being a bit cool, the Pietenpol>is a great skiplane.>>Most of the time I used Federal A1500A skis and, at present,>am using a pair of ancient Federal SC 1 skis I acquired a few>years back. Both pairs work just fine, and are light in weight.>>A friend used to make water skis of oak back in the early1970's>and he made a pair for me to use on the Pietenpol. I welded up>pedestals from steel tubing, varnished the topsides and waxed >the undersides. Rigging was according to standard aircraft prac->tice. Birch aircraft plywood 1/4 inch thick was glued to the top->sides under the pedestal and 1/8 inch birch ply was used at the>nose and tail for reinforcement. A 1/8 inch by 1 inch piece of iron>ran from nose to tail to act as a "keel" and take some of the wear.>The oak boards were unlaminated pieces 10 inches wide, 4.5 ft.>long and about 7/8 inch thick. He soaked them in water for several>days and then clamped them in a form for a couple of weeks to>dry. They held their shape well.>>I used these skis for several seasons, but retired them when my>Federal A1500A skis became available when I sold my Taylorcraft. >The unlaminated oak boards had developed longitudinal cracks,>and I removed the pedestals, etc. to rework them and put epoxy>in the cracks. Never did this, and finally gave them to a friend last>year for his Pietenpol. These oak "boards" worked well on the Piet->enpol, particularly in deep snow, but were a bit heavy. >>I suggest that anyone building a set of wooden skis go the laminat->ing route which would facilitate putting in the bends. One could even>build up a laminated streamlined pedestal instead of a metal one!>Another option would be to build a "cage" to drop (or roll) the wheel>into, leaving the wheels installed. Years ago, Call Air in Wyoming>produced a setup like this and it worked well. A friend had a Piper>Pacer with Call Air skis and really liked the system. Unfortunately,>he sold those skis with the airplane; otherwise, I would get them for>my Vagabond because we have LOTS of snow this winter (in cen->tral Alberta, Canada) . By the way, where do you live?> >Anyway, I have no plans but have perhaps provided you and others>with some "food for thought". >>Graham Hansen>>________________________________________________________________________________