Improvised ski for Champ

[SHADY]

It very Rarely snows here on the southeast coast of N Carolina.
But it started snowing last night, we got around 1-2 inches last night and today.
Anyways..... I finally had a chance to play and wanted to make a ski for my Champ, I know the snow is not going to stick around for more than a day or so.

Quickly improvised a set of small skis and had no luck....

Here's what I have finally come up with..... A single sled/ski made from this mornings egg crate...

It weighs 4 grams and is set up very sloppily... It works like a CHAMP on the ground... Was too dark for a flight test until tomorrow....
Probably won't fly for $hiite, but it'll slide around perty good....






Hoping to fly in the a.m. here, will try and post results in the afternoon...

[SHADY]

Well, just a small cg adjustment and it works just as planned.
Slides easily, rudder has good authority on land, takes off a bit slower, but it flies very well, surprisingly enough.

[NJSwede]

Really? It still flies well? I was just going to say you've put a big honkin' airfoil with negative lift on it, but if it works, it works! Dang! I have to try that myself.

[SHADY]

Originally Posted by NJSwede

Really? It still flies well? I was just going to say you've put a big honkin' airfoil with negative lift on it, but if it works, it works! Dang! I have to try that myself.

There is quite a bit of drag, but doesn't appear to negative lift, I believe it's just wind resistance...

It definitely is something that needs revision, but for the 10 minutes every 2 or 3 years that I would get to use it, I believe it did it's job.

[NJSwede]

Judging from the weather report, I'll be needing a solution for a lot more than 10 minutes every 2-3 years...

[SHADY]

haha, yea we don't get much snow here.....
I think it would work better as a 2 ski setup, less drag and less weight.

But the egg carton foam seems to be rigid enough and light enough to work very well in a more thought out design...

I was under a bit of a time crunch, between free time and before the snow all melts....

[dkrhardy]

Do you need such a high "leading edge" on it? If not, cut it down some and I bet you lose some of the drag.

[SHADY]

Yea, I cut it down after the snow packed a bit.
At first the snow was so fluffy it would dig w/o a tall front edge.After cutting it down a bit, the flight characteristics became better.