Anyone here ever water ski?

[Slick Goodlin]

Just curious, but has anyone here ever water skied an airplane?  As a flying bum who's lucky enough to fly other people's planes, I don't intend to do it lest I lose that privilege but I do wonder what it's like.


It seems to me that like any spectacle it probably isn't nearly as dangerous as it looks:

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Water skiing a wheel equipped airplane is very unforgiving of mistakes in pitch control.


If you dig the wheels you will wreck the airplane and if you survive you may be charged with reckless operation of the airplane and for sure the insurance will be invalid.


I personally would never even consider doing it.

[Slick Goodlin]

[quote author=Chuck Ellsworth link=topic=3495.msg9715#msg9715 date=1467421842]
Water skiing a wheel equipped airplane is very unforgiving of mistakes in pitch control.
[/quote]
That's actually the part I'm trying to wrap my head around.  Looking it up, it seems like the Alaskan Bushwheel guys are using around 4psi.  Plugging that into the accepted formula of nine times the square root of your tire pressure tells me that above about 18mph you will have an awfully hard time digging in your wheels.  In what way am I wrong on this?

[BCPilotguy]

Real men don't just waterski, they waterski Harvards:


[youtube][/youtube]


I'm not a real man though, I don't think I'd have the stones to try it. 

[David MacRay]

Don't try it with tricycle gear.

[Chris]

My question has always been, wheels rolling or locked? Locked seems to make more sense to me - skimming the water and less "suction".