WHEEL- SKIS

MY -8 WILL SOON BE READY TO FLY. I own a floatplane base, complete with hangar and want to do first flight off the lake on wheel-skis, hopefully in March. As long as conditions are right that is safest way to do first flight. My runway is 10,000 ft long and 5000 ft wide! But I'm having hard time tracking down anyone who has installed wheel-skis on a RV. Can anyone out there help me. Any one in Alaska on on skis? I live in Northern Ontario.

Mal

RV-8 on Skis

Patrick Gilligan at COPA puts his RV-8 on skis each winter.
Google: "Patrick Gilligan COPA" for his coordinates.

Awesomeness!

CJ

C-GKSZ

Here,

Check out the photos in this thread: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?p=857985

Sledrider said:

Patrick Gilligan at COPA puts his RV-8 on skis each winter.
Google: "Patrick Gilligan COPA" for his coordinates.

Click to expand...

Having seen Patrick's in action I can say they seem to work very well, are simple and appear to be quite robust. It's quite something to watch him depart from the snow!

I have been in contact with Pat Gilligan and he has a nice set-up but he uses fixed-penetration skis. I want to go full wheel-skis because I will be operating off a lake all winter and will have to deal with slush and deep snow. Fixed-pen not so good if any slush. My concern is how wheel-skis handle the higher speeds. Would like to get in contact with someone who has done this. I have been in contact with company in Quebec called Datam. They build and sell beautiful electric operated wheel skis but all their pics are on high wing homebuilts. I'd like to find someone who has put them on a Van's. They say they have sold them to RV builders but won't give me a name. I'm a little suspicious.

Can anyone help me? I should be ready to fly in March.