This weekend might be the only ski flying we get all winter, but we made a great day of it. Sunday was calm and sunny. Tyson had arranged to give his boss and wife a ride in the Bearhawk. The Bowman airfield ski fly-in was the same day. They were up for a longer adventure. We were short on seats, so Isaac spent the day with his grandparents. He seemed mostly happy about that.

First, Tyson called John Strauss on Lake Monomonac to see if the ice was thick enough. John had connected Tyson with his current startup, so Tyson thought it would be fun to bring Blake over to say hi. The ice was just on the edge of thick enough. John drilled measurement holes up and down the length of a runway. He found it was thick enough to be safe. However, the ice was slick. When we landed, we kept sliding and sliding. Tyson had to do a slow accelerated turn to stop our motion to the east, but then we were sliding back west. To stop the plane completely, he had to turn off the engine. It was a little exciting. We got out and said hi. The ice made cracking noises and low pitch boing-oing sounds. It was below freezing and the ice was thickening and expanding.

To get to lunch at Bowman, we had to quit socializing. Tyson’s plan was to fly to Plymouth for a snow landing, then through Franconia Notch for the scenery, and finally east to Bowman in Maine. Tyson let Blake fly most of the way to Plymouth. Blake has flown model airplanes and model helicopters. It showed in how well he understood the different controls. By Plymouth, he even had decent rudder-aileron control. Which is saying something in the Bearhawk. At Plymouth, a Cessna 170 entered the pattern behind us. They asked us to give a snow report after we landed. They were on straight skis whereas we were on retractable skis. The snow was fast and firm. Tyson landed with no issues. The wet looking spots off the side of the runway turned out to be solid ice. By this point, the sun was out and it was getting warm. It was shaping up to be a perfect day.

It was also shaping up to us being late for lunch. I declared we needed to head straight for Bowman and skip the tour of the mountains. We said bye to the folks in the 170. They were out of Post Mills in Vermont, and Bowman was too far away for their day. I flew this leg. Thankfully the snow conditions were easy. I had been worried I would embarrass myself on my first ski takeoff for the winter. The 170 folks though… Tyson looked down after we departed and saw that they hadn’t made the turn onto the runway.
Instead, the 170 had slid all the way to the road. Sometimes with skis, you just have to get out and turn the airplane by hand. That’s why you bring snowshoes and microspikes.

The snow was a little softer and warmer at Bowman, but still not an issue. Despite hearing planes departing before we arrived, there was plenty of food left. The moose stew was my favorite. Second favorite were the apple pie bites. I queried one of the locals about which lakes and fields were safe to land on. He reported all the larger lakes had 12″+ of ice. No particular fields around. Then we hung out outside and got sun burns. I recognized a few folks from Maine fly ins pre-covid. The families have all gotten older. Most of the planes were on wheel penetration skis or retractable skis, but some were on straight skis. About 20 airplanes attended the event.

Blake and Ivy were ready to head home, but I convinced them to let me do one lake landing. I like landing on lakes, or really anyplace off airport, because you have to make decisions about where and how to land. For lakes, the evaluation includes

• thin/thick spots
• pressure ridges
• Obstacles such as bob houses, snowmobile race tracks, ice fishing tip ups, and navigation markers
• wind direction
• ice surface quality (skis vs wheels)

Androscoggin Lake was pretty easy. I found a large flat area where I could have landed any direction. It’s too bad we didn’t have time to get out and wander around.

Tyson flew back through the Whites with Ivy in the right seat. We did the scenic tour of Mount Washington, and then Tyson let Ivy try flying. She didn’t have Blake’s prior experience with RC aircraft, so she had to learn the basic controls. She kept at it, even when the aircraft kept wanting to fly crooked or in circles. When we reached Brookline, Ivy flew the first half of the landing pattern pretty well. Hopefully the two of them enjoyed the day enough to try flying again.

As for Tyson and I, we hopped right back in the plane to pick up Isaac. While we were in Maine, Peter Temple had measured his ice depth in Harrisville and invited all the local pilots over. Tyson’s dad was already there. We grabbed Isaac from Jaffrey and scooted over to Harrisville. Unlike the other two smooth ice lakes, this ice had a regular pattern of fist sized nubbles. The wind must have scalloped the snow into waves. Then, in the subsequent melt-freeze cycles, only the peaks survived. Isaac jumped out of the Bearhawk to play with the local kids on ice skates. (We need to get Isaac ice skates, but his feet keep growing faster than the lakes will freeze.) Tyson and most of the adults watched an owl and some eagles in the nearby trees. The mother of the other kids, I discovered, was working towards her pilots license. She really wanted to experience flying off a lake. So I gave her a quick flight around the pattern. My landing was absolutely smooth. Well, except for those bumps in the ice. Then we had to run on home because the sun was setting.

P.S. We installed the new starter the night before. It worked!

All Photos

GPS Track