Overheard!

By Bernie Willis

A regular reader of this column asked for some thoughts on ski flying. But before I get to that I must share what was overheard right here in the Mat-Su valley.

Both of these events happened the same day. Maybe it was bad national news that upset some folk or the congestion in the air on a very nice weather day. I hope it was a passing phenomenon like a tornado that spun itself out with no permanent damage. A pilot landed at Birchwood in a Cub on 20 Left, the gravel strip. When braking to make the first turn off toward the paved runway his right brake failed. Instead of turning off the runway on to the taxiway he stopped straight ahead and then with careful maneuvering made a 270-degree left turn to line up with the taxiway. In the meantime, the next landing aircraft made a go around. Then he proceeded toward the paved 20 Right. He noticed an aircraft on final but decided to power across instead of trying to stop with the one brake and perhaps causing a runway blockage. The aircraft on final appeared to be a quarter mile or more from touch down. It landed without an issue and taxied clear. It took the pilot of the disabled airplane a couple more left turns to get lined up to his parking spot. When he finally succeeded, the pilot of the plane that had just landed taxied up and demanded that he stay with his airplane as he wanted to talk with him. So the Cub driver hung around wondering what the fellow had to say. In a few minutes he showed up in his pickup truck, red faced and angry as a wounded bear. The obscenities flew one way with a final statement that if the Cub pilot didn't know any better than to block the runway he shouldn't use the Birchwood airport ever again. The Cub guy has had some flying experience. He began in the bush in the late 60's, has flown most of the Pipers, Cessnas, deHavillands, Commanders and some odd European types too. He's been a DPE and retired as a captain from Alaska Airlines and still instructs in light aircraft. As far as he knows, a disabled aircraft has the right of way, and a balked landing is not an emergency procedure. He wracked his brain for an appropriate response then he remembered the admonition of Mark Twain, “You can't argue with a fool.” Finally, the angry guy wore himself out and drove away.

Now after the Cub guy got his brake fixed, fled Birchwood, and changed frequency, he heard another conversation over CTAF. Apparently two pilots were near each other somewhere around Settler's Bay. They were each accusing the other of being too close and not paying attention, that a midair had been narrowly avoided and that it was the other guy’s fault. Then a third voice came on frequency and told them both to carry on their argument at the bar.

I want to believe that this was a very rare day in Alaska. That we who enjoy the freedoms of our great state and its wonderful aviation opportunities are normally respectful of each other and do our best to look out for the other pilot. There's an old song that says, “No man is an Island, no man stands alone.” We share these wonderful skies. Get a grip on the other pilots stick and see if you might see life his way before amplifying the situation. Now if you've been on skis long you know the lyrics have a special meaning.

What is it about ski flying that makes it different? Ski flying takes a good dose of wisdom. Wisdom is what comes from mistakes, usually our own. If you'll consider someone else's mistakes perhaps you'll not have to make them all yourself.

The basic difference between wheels and skis is that skis slide instead of roll. They'll go forward, backward, and sideways. Your brakes are usually worthless. The skis put enormous stress on the landing gear if turned too sharp. They speed up when they shouldn't and get stuck when you want them to go. On the other hand, they don't leak air and go flat. Our village folk have about 20 words for snow. Us English speakers use a few adjectives to describe the different kinds of snow. Basically, snow is crystalized water. The type of crystals depends upon the temperature and the moisture available. The colder it is, the rougher their surface and the less slippery the snow becomes. As the temperature approaches the freezing level the roughness disappears, and the takeoff run decreases and the landing distance increases. Imagine the difference between taking off on glare ice and landing on the same surface. After a foot of snow falls on the same lake overnight, the takeoff distance will lengthen and the landing distance will shorten.

This seems obvious but sometimes it needs to be experienced to be appreciated. One time I landed my Cessna 170 on a small lake near Shungnak and came to an abrupt stop.

Full power wouldn't budge me another foot forward. The snow was so deep the door wouldn't open. The only way to get out was to first open the window, reach out and down as far as possible and move the snow away from the door by hand. Then, with snowshoes ready behind the seat, I began the day long task of packing a runway. Finally, a villager came by and, seeing my dilemma, offered some advice and help. His story was about another pilot that landed on glare ice of a different nearby lake. He saw the plane heading for shore and about to crash into the spruce covered bank. With seconds to spare the pilot gunned the engine and, taking advantage of the left turning tendency, applied full left rudder and spun the airplane around. The momentum still carried the plane toward the shore only backwards. He then applied right rudder powered up and got it stopped just short of the bank.

There's another unique phenomenon about cold weather that affects ski operations. Most of Alaska is wet. The subsurface water is flowing all the time. In summer it eventually ends up in the ocean or evaporates. In winter its outlets are blocked by ice, sort of. What happens is that as the temperature drops the ice expands, freezes deeper and cracks. The water pressure builds and finds its way up through these cracks and hides under the snow on top of the ice. Overflow it’s called, but in reality, it’s an escaped villain. It’s waiting to ambush you on your snow-machine or airplane and ruin your day. Fortunately, on skis you can do a precautionary landing, keep up the speed and take off again. Then fly back and look at your tracks. If there is any darkness showing in them, its water. Stay away! Sometimes you won't find the overflow until you've stepped from the airplane or looked at the tail wheel that has sunk further into the snow than the skis. One solution for this problem is to probe the area with your axe until you find an area free of overflow. Taxi there for a safe parking place. If left alone, the water may rise up around the ski, through the soft snow and freeze the whole mass into a hard brick overnight. The action of moving over the snow creates a thin layer of water in most circumstances. This thin moist layer will freeze and make it very difficult to get moving again. Cubs and be rocked back and forth from the strut attach points and broken loose, but heavier planes are often run up on spruce poles or plastic trash bags to break that freezing barrier. Sometimes a good heavy kick of a thick boot will break the ice grip. I've seen skis hit with the butt of an axe in desperation to get them loose.

There are all kinds of ski configurations: straight skis which have been addressed here, hydraulic wheel skis and penetration skis offer some advantages and disadvantages that could take up a chapter book. The basics of operating them all depend upon the snow conditions. Even the Grizzly brakes’ effectiveness depends upon the consistency of the snow. Regardless of your type of ski, if you are flying behind an American made engine, it turns clockwise when viewed from the cockpit. This means that the aircraft has a left turning tendency. Take advantage of it. Plan as many turns as possible to the left. Only in adverse wind conditions might you have to turn to the right.

One spring I got this pleading call from a man I'd never met before. He had just eaten up the porch at his friend's cabin with his prop. He needed his crank flange checked and maybe a loaner prop. A friend on the end of a rope tied to the tail spring could have saved him thousands of dollars. You don't want to be alone out there in the winter on skis.