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Landis 2500 Ski operations

S2D

MEMBER
Montana
What are people doing for bottoms on their landis skis? I am operating a pair of landis skis with original bottoms, and they seem kind of sticky. Are people putting plastic botttoms on them too. I figured the plastic or fiberglass bottoms they are made out of should be slick but mine aren't. If they were half as slick on the bottom as they are on top, they'd be a rocket, I have to get some wing walk paint before I kill myself stepping on the tops.
 
I always wondered about making the bottoms out of the same material as the top myself. Usually I am in the deepest consideration of this when I am upside down under the airplane after having stepped on the top of the ski with snow on my boot....
The later generation landes skiis have a better bottom. On the earlier ones guys use sheets of the same material that dogsled people use for the runners on their sleds. PTFE perhaps? I am sure if you search the board you will find a solution for your bottoms.
Good luck
Scott :morning:
 
Thanks Scott.
Had a friend that used to run a set and he had put some "plastic" on the bottoms of his but I could never figure out why. Now I know. Ive got some, so I probably will put it on.
 
S2D
I have an old set of 2500s that originally had the fiberglass, black bottoms. The fiberglass was easily damaged. I put the 1/4 " UHMW plastic on 10 years ago and is still going strong.
 
You can also send your skis back to Gary Landis and he will install/mold the new UHMW bottoms for about a thousand bucks.
 
The tops of Airglas skis are a gel-coat finish. The non-plastic edges on the bottom are also a gel-coat finish. The reason the bottoms have plastic and not just gel-coat is that the gel-coat is too brittle and fragile for ski-bottom service, as Cubpilot2 has said. Too bad, as that stuff is truly slippery against the snow on the bottom of your boots, etc.

The plastic that Airglas install originally now-adays on the bottoms is UHMW(ultra-high-molecular-weight-Polyethylene) with a glass cloth backing that gets glued to the ski bottoms in an in-lay fashion.

This is a major repair to your skis and something that Airglas will only handle during the summer months. They're too busy during the winter.

Plenty of guys will install plain UHMW sheet by just screwing it on using the original runners as a "nailer" strip to retain the edges. Beware that the orignial steel runners will stick to the snow. Some guys use thick UHMW strips as runners/retainers. It works great.

Beware of running 1/4" UHMW sheet due to weight. If you instead choose 1/8" UHMW sheet, you'll cut the plastic weight in half. If you've worked with the stuff much, you'll know that it is heavy stuff. I believe that the 1/8" does a fine job of protecting the bottoms and being slippery on the snow. Some guys will say you need the 1/4" to protect from gravel or to keep the plastic from "bellying" or "bulging" away from the ski bottoms. I say that when using 1/8" the snow doesn't care about "bulging" of the plastic if it really even happens, and that the 1/8" is tough enough for the gravel errors that I have made.

Happy Skiing. DAVE
 
Be sure to check your paperwork. The STC for Airglas 2500 wheel replacement ski's does not cover 160hp or 180hp PA-12, PA-14, and PA-18. It only covers 150hp or less. You need to get a field approval for the larger HP motors.
 
ski bottoms

Many people I know have taken the skeg off and then put a teflon bottom on before reinstalling the skeg (which was also replaced with a teflon strip). I did this and then wondered why I hadn't done it many years ago as it was a great improvement. The current trend is to make the teflon bottom wider than the original ski bottom and this gives added flotation in addition to gaining a much more slippery new ski bottom which doesn't freeze down.
 
I removed the steel skages from my 2500s sandwitched plastic bottoms between the ski and skages then reinstalled the skages. I found on glare ice I would have to shut the engine down to stop the plane. To give me a little braking power on ice I installed a bolt with a hex head under the axel on each side. This would give me control and stopping power on ice but didn't seem to cause any noticable drag on snow.

Cub_Driver
 
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