My Datum experience, in my 5 th. season now: about 30 to 50 hrs a season, depending on the snow (GREAT this year). On my experimental, I am limited to a single brake caliper, while many others that fly the same exp. (without skis) have dual. No big deal, my brakes are fine, I land so slow they are not needed much. On one side, if and when I bleed it, I have to unbolt it, while keeping it plumbed, bleed it while holding it at the correct angle, and then bolt it back down. Another, no big deal, it's not like I need to bleed my brakes often anyway, or ever. The need to use the smaller tires is like everything else associated with ski flying, a compromise and part of the price of admission. I don't like having to move all the snow that drifts in front of my hangar either , and wouldn't if I didn't ski fly, but it's worth it.
Now here is my latest Datum news, after a 3 hour romp in the Lemhi Range area just yesterday, I stopped on the way home at Mackay for lunch. BTW, the asphalt there for some reason is like a cheese grater, just horribly abrasive, the worst I have ever seen, and I never land it when on the Airstreaks, but use the gravel edge. With all the snow I had to land the tarmac, but of course on the cheap and hard 6:00's I didn't care! I always taxi to the north end as far as possible to park (off the centerline of course) that way it's a 3 minute at most walk to the gas station/cafe "Sammys." They sell ethanol free mogas for the ATV crowd, handy for me too. Anyway, once fed, I took my 16 oz. cup of real hot coffee (they use the machines that brew a cup at a time, and it's as hot as McDonald's used to make their's) in one hand and a 2 gallon jug of mogas in the other (a solid half hour for me, didn't really need it but I was right there so why not), and as I took off a few minutes later, it all went wrong. I was a little distracted by the need to balance the hot coffee in it's to go cup (no thermal cup for me, that'd be cheating, too easy) , but that's something I often do so not that big of deal. But the big distraction was a local LEO of some sort, sheriff deputy I think, that blasted by me, on the parallel to the runway highway, with lights flashing.
Since we were both going the same direction, I figured I'd keep him in sight and see what the fuss was all about. At one point I almost couldn't keep up, he was doing 100 mph, maybe a bit more. But of course I was going in a straight line so I managed, but at one point I had to fly behind some small hills and lost sight of him. At the same time I saw a large, 50 head or more, herd of elk that were obviously being fed by F&G (I guess) in a field and I circled a bit to check them out. Then I cleared the hills and after a fruitless search I realized that whatever action he was heading towards, was now back behind me, and I lost interest in seeing what it was, going out of my way to gawk at an accident or whatever it was was too creepy, so I just headed for home, about 80 miles away across the high desert.
Once back in the mountains and over my place, I did what I almost always do, have just a little more fun before putting it away. I have one little knob top just across my property line that I like to spot land on, using the steep side facing my house to slow me down, coming to a full stop at the top, or nearly so, then powering off downhill and using another bump to launch me back up into a max rate of climb high banked turn that turns into a max rate of descent spiral and set up for landing. It's pointless and just a way to celebrate making it home OK again. Plus the next morning, I can look out the kitchen window while drinking coffee and see my tracks, that's priceless.
By now, most probably know where I'm going with all this.... thanks to the flashing lights on the LEO, and the distraction of "chasing" him, and the damn elk herd, plus the scalding hot coffee, I forgot to "put the skis down," actually they get sucked under the tires by the electric actuators, but you get the idea. I had flown clear across the desert with the extra drag of the high AOA skis hanging down, fat, dumb, and happy, like flying along with one notch of flaps down, not that I've ever done that, or no one else here has, right? That's what checklists are for! So, I arrived on this fairly steep bump with a nice solid set down, with no flying speed left over (as planned) as there is no length for a gentle gliding gradual touchdown. It worked fine, I came to a full stop right on the knob top, rather more abrupt then usual, then right when I advanced the throttle for the downhill takeoff it hit me, and before I thought it through I hit the switches (finally) to "go to skis." To my surprise, they started sliding under the tires as usual, with only further concern being as they did I started sliding downhill even back at idle, but by the time I really had to go to full throttle to avoid a gully the skis were mostly in place and the takeoff was uneventful. 10 seconds later I was landing, a couple minutes later it was back in the hangar, with at least a casual look over showing nothing worse for wear, I'll check everything closer tomorrow but I think I got away with it. I have no idea if others have done this, or I'm the first, but it's good to know that if one is stupid enough to get distracted that you can still land without a major problem. This snow was deep, 3', and all in all this was about a worst case scenario. The one good thing, if I had wrecked it, I could have walked home in a few minutes and looked at it while drinking coffee the next morning. This picture was taken earlier in the day, before I got distracted.