The International Cessna 170 Association

I am "STILL" looking for a set of skis for my 52' 170B.. rick@m-b-arch.com

There's some on Barnstormers. Search "Federal Skis".

Need a set of solid aluminum ski axles?

Aero Ski MFG in Brooten MN makes brand new ones. They do not have a website so call him direct.

Bill

I think these are the best skis going.

http://www.airglas.com/

Rick-
Are you looking for advice on what skis to get, fishing to see if there are any skis for sale, or just curious? If you are looking for advice, where will you be using the skis and what will you be doing with them? Will you be only on snow and ice or will you be landing at airports as well? All important questions in order to get the best skis for your conditions.

When I was up in Alaska and started looking for a set of skis for my Stinson L-5, I found the "footprint area of the skis" to be of paramount concern depending on what kind of surfaces you planned on flying from. Small aluminum Federals were fine for flying fom a wind packed frozen lake or other typically hard surface, but were unuseable in any soft or deep snow due to their lack of "flotation". In those days, Federal made an "Alcan" model with a greater footprint area, but for really soft or deep snow, they too were under floated. I was in Fairbanks, and the interior alaskan cold made all the snow soft and it stayed that way. I ended up using a set of home made wood skis copied from some used by Northern Consolidated on their Stinson V-77 bush planes with a considerable increase in footprint due to increased gross weight of the V-77 ("Reliant" model).
This was all back in about 1947 or 1948 and straight skis were all that were used on small aircraft. The only combination wheel skis I ever saw were those on the Air Force C-47s.
I kept my airplane at Weeks Field, the old Fairbanks municipal airport. A sort of renowned pioneer bush pilot named Sam White parked his L-5 right next to mine, In order to run his winter trap line, he bolted a set of small toboggans to the bottom of his skis to provide flotation in deep, soft snow out on his trap line.

Thanks for your comments. Looking at some Airglas skis not far from my home in N. Il. (plenty of snow here now). Airglas with 1.25" dia. bushings for a Supercub, I am told those need to be replaced with 1.5" dia. bushings and a portion of my axles have to be machined down to 1.5" dia as well...

I do have set of Federal 2500s that came off of a 1955 C170 B They need bungies and new bottoms. Intending to clean up and redo bottoms but would sell as is. Looking for protrusion skiis

www.aeroski.net

This will give you a little info on the Aero skis.
Shawn

Shawn-
Did you build a website for Aeroskis? I thought it was very unusual they never had one. Looks good.

Thanks. Yeah, I have been a dealer for them for around 20 years and had encouraged them to build a website a number of times over the years but with no luck. They are such great guys but their fax and email are high tech enough for them. They are old school but we love them that way. A couple years ago I asked them if they minded if I built a website and put their brochures on there. They were excited about it. I plan to upgrade the site to an easier format and then I can add more photos to the slide show. I have about 50 great ski flying photos that people have sent me that I want to add to it.
Shawn

That's great Shawn that you did that for them. I have talked with them several times about making a set of retractables for the 170 and 180/185 but they seemed content with what they have. I think their skis are about the best out there and I have flown two different sets on Maules. They perform great and the retract mechanism is simple and reliable. They sure beat running hydraulic lines all over the plane and having to deal with the mess of hydraulic fluid inside the cabin. I did it anyway on the 180 because that is the only option for retractables but I would have rather had some Aeroski retractables.

My airglas L2500A's are installed an flew yesterday for the first time on snow. The snow conditions were hard and bumpy but doable. Made dollys that fit into the Cessna axles. The dollys work but make the gear splay out when moving the plane backward, due to the skis being toe'd in....

Performance on the crusty snow was good on take off, not too different fron wheels on grass.

Shawn, I have not flown skis since my Nome days. I have been trying to decide whether to go for straight skis or wheel skis, the retractable kind. I think I would prefer straight and the Aero ski you sent a link to has an extra hole for the throw over type axle wheel. I think weight wise that makes the most sense for me. Now does anyone have experience between the Aero skis and the Airglas?

The Airglas do not have a way to put a wheel on for maneuvering to where you can take off on skis if you are on a paved airport. I want to be able to land in powder so am thinking the 3000's no matter which ski I would get.

I like straight skis for the ease and convenience of installation, less weight sort of like straight floats versus amphibs.

Anyone have any information of either ski or an alternate ski I would appreciate it. The skis I had in Nome were the old Northland wood skis with the steel pedestal. They had great flotation.