The Winter of 2011-2012 was a good one for us Alaskans. The snow fell continuously, the wind blew less than recent years, and the temperature stayed between -20F and 20F… for the most part. In Palmer and Anchorage we set record snow fall levels and in June and July we are still feeling the effects. This particular airstrip was covered in snow when we needed to use it, so the clients had to wait two days for the snow to melt. Fortunately, the sun came out and did much of the hard work for them. The snow cover shown in the mountains below was chest deep and made hiking over the higher passes challenging at best.
A good friend of mine from college (pictured below talking with Mike Meekin) spent 5 days working with us. Brian flies Cessna 185’s on nasty strips in the Philippines and is exploring the option of putting bigger tires on their planes. Between Mike and I we have all the standard tires and wheels used in off-field operations for 185’s. We run the standard 8.50’s with 6″ wheels, we also run 8.50’s with the 10″ gar aero adapter, 10×10 Alaskan bushwheels, and 29″ Alaskan Bushweels on a 6″ wheel. We were able to flight test the different options to help him in the decision process. We really wanted to simulate the wet grass conditions that so often exist in the Philippines but unfortunately as the photos show below … there was no grass available in the middle of June, because it was all covered with snow.
(Here is a video of some of Brian’s flying in the Philippines)
