ski design

So snow skis have a concave design because we weight the front and use that angle to help us turn....likewise water skis are convex because we weight the back and the angle helps us turn there



has anybody worked at adding shape to plane skis to help with the turning and maybe alleviate some gear bind

Yes... and I should go back to my old design of making the nose about 2 inches wider than the rear. Nose cuts the path and allows the tails to turn that much tighter.

I got to fly a Cub on Federal 1500s with new plastic bottoms, but they did not put a scag on the skis. The airplane would not hardly turn at all, It would just slide every direction. It was kind of fun to fly/taxi. They did add the scag!

swoeric said:

So snow skis have a concave design because we weight the front and use that angle to help us turn....likewise water skis are convex because we weight the back and the angle helps us turn there



has anybody worked at adding shape to plane skis to help with the turning and maybe alleviate some gear bind

Click to expand...

Yes and No.

WE do not "lean" our airplane skis if every thing is going okay.......

.........So "rocker" is another design element to consider. (rocker= nose tip up and tail tip up) Rocker affects the ability of the rudder/tailski/propwash to use the fuselage as a lever that "pivots" the skis around the fore and aft center-of-resistance of the ski-shape.

You want some, but not too much. You don't want "not enough"

PS. Snow is such a variable medium that not all designs work "best" as the snow varies. Heck, a design may not work well from morning to afternoon.

The same is true for downhill snow-skis. Todays deep-powder ski designs mimic water ski designs......there is no sidecut............and there is rocker on both ends....

...funny.......and it works!