Dont know if this might help folks to answer this question or not, but for guys that dont have alot of experence messing around in snowy conditions . Here is an example of how quickly conditions can change............. back when I was doing a fair amount of Sheep Hunting a favorite technique was to find some larger rams hanging by themselves, they often hang early in season pretty high 4/6000 ft. And often near glacers. So naturally to save climbing we would start scheming where you could land on the Glacier to save hiking all day to get up to
Them. So we would find a spot that appeared to look good, and I liked to throw something out (had a high vis orange boat cushion that worked perfect) then get up above the target area and make a nice long well trimed out approach DOWNHILL to the cushion, and touch down still flying and see what it felt like, lots of times it feels ok until you pushed ahead on the stick and felt resistance and snow would
Start spraying off the side of my Airstreaks, that is mealy like rock salt stuff , ng so you simply pull up and forgot about it right then, ditto on touching the snow and it feeling like its way to soft and you imeadiatly see dry snow spraying up onto the windshield, off the front of the skis, its too DEEP, or
God forbid you throw out the cushion and it disapears and then you cant see it! Dont try it......
Anyway if it all felt right we would then turn around and land back UPHILL on those tracks you just made, and set up a camp, we would usually snow shoe down an area so you could get turned easier.
Of course we tryed to get the rams as early in the morning as you could so we could get the hel! out of there before the top softened up. However lots of times it didnt work out as planed, and the sun would soften the snow up to the point that
To even taxi was impossible, then as the day went on it could become too much for wheelskis....... then by 1/2 pm on warm days it will actually turn into something similar to corn , up to you knees in places,to the point even superwide straight skis would be out of bussiness. So we would have to wait till it cooled down and all firmed back up. We would often have to spend an extra nite on the glacier break camp before daylight, and be takeing off when I could just see.
So there really is no good answer to how much snow you can land in as it isnt as simple as how much it can change from
Day to day, it is really more like how much it can change from hour to hour, so literally the same place
That was fine to land on yesterday or even early this morning may flip you this afternoon! We did most of our exploring early in The morning, with good lighting, low temps, no wind etc. And to be honest lots of guys would check out spots with skis first and then screw around with big tires AFTER they had been up there with skis. Bottom line on alot of this bush pilotie
Stuff that is fine for Paul Clause or Doug Geeting, is actually way over what most of us are capable of doing. So unless Your truely willing ,to "big boy up" and pay the price of admission (and it can be brutal) dont mix wheels with snow unlessYou have done your homework............ pulling the power back thinking your Don Sheldon can easily leave you in a mess,Your going to regret! Fly as safe as you can and you can still get into plenty of trouble.........30" tires are 50 percent better than 8:50s in snow,but for some reason alot of guys think nowadays , that they are 500 percent better, and that is NOT true. I have heard the numbers 4"/8" kicked around camp for 8:50s and 30" tires and those are probably good numbers IF you dont hit a soft spot, but what IF you do? I have taken off in a foot of snow with 31" tires
And had to roll a wheel out like you would a float, and still went 3/400 ft on one tire to get up enough
Airspeed to finally get off. But i sure as hel! Didnt want to land there. Hope this may help someone that is
Anxious to go try his new bushwheels in 2ft of wet snow!! You are simply going to wreck your airplane
That why when it gets 6/8" deep , get the boards on! Good Luck!
