These things were pretty cool. Some of them were really plush with heat and defrost, sheepskin seats. 100 mph buggies built when airplanes were cheap, now guys are paying 40-50 grand for the engines off of some of them.
Before the snowmobile...old photo
- Thread starter revpilot
- Start date
S
Snow Flake
Guest
When I was a kid...about 50 years ago...a guy that lived at Rimrock lake out of Yakima had an old tail dragger fuselage with engine and prop on skis. It had complete tail feathers too. The skis were big straight wooden ones and a lot longer than the kind used on ski planes.
I saw it sitting at his house durring the summer and talked to his father...a real old man...one day. The old man told me his son would take it up the logging roads on snow in the winter and out on the lake when it froze over and "Go like hell in it".
That contraption made quite an impression on me and I can still picture it in my mind today.
I saw it sitting at his house durring the summer and talked to his father...a real old man...one day. The old man told me his son would take it up the logging roads on snow in the winter and out on the lake when it froze over and "Go like hell in it".
That contraption made quite an impression on me and I can still picture it in my mind today.
My mother in law remembers riding to school up in the nose of her Dads' snowplane wrapped in a horsehide blanket. I've been in a few, it's like riding in a plane that's always on takeoff but never flies. The ice fishers used to use them on Jackson Lake until the greenies got them banned.
Hey Rev,
I grew up just a couple miles south of you and one old guy in the neighborhood had one parked outside of his house - until "the flood" took it away in '76. It was pretty cool looking, but he never used it. I asked my Mom or Dad about it one time and they told me that he'd had a son who was killed in one just like it and they never drove it again.
I guess that used to be pretty common since there was plenty of ability to get moving, but not much to stop. The one the son was in hit a canal bank or road or something.
The pic brings back memories of my neighborhood as a kid though - thanks!
I grew up just a couple miles south of you and one old guy in the neighborhood had one parked outside of his house - until "the flood" took it away in '76. It was pretty cool looking, but he never used it. I asked my Mom or Dad about it one time and they told me that he'd had a son who was killed in one just like it and they never drove it again.
I guess that used to be pretty common since there was plenty of ability to get moving, but not much to stop. The one the son was in hit a canal bank or road or something.
The pic brings back memories of my neighborhood as a kid though - thanks!
We have one down in my barn that my Dad built in the 60's. Lot's of good memories from that thing. He had the motor redone in the late 70's and the engine never ran right after that. Think it is a timing problem as it only had one magneto instead of two.
Steve
Steve
Good vids guys. That last one was a lot of work for nothing, poor guy.
The dude in the second vid was pretty calm. I'd have been yelling and throwing tools all over the place by the time the video was done!
First one was great.. except for the repeats I thought ooh, some terrain, then, aww repeat.. then repeat.. LOL good idea, back then. It would be fun to have a machine like that to boo around..
Second vid.. well not sure what was going on there...
sounded hopped up.
Second vid.. well not sure what was going on there...
sounded hopped up.
K
knee deep in it
Well-known member
someone should photoshop a Yamaha sticker on the side of the second one.
I remember scorpions, we had one when I was a little kid but I didn't know they built snowplanes. Glad they'res a few still being used. As far as room to stop I remember a few being built in the 70's with Pratt-whitney turbines that could reverse thrust. I'm not sure how many people died in a 1200hp snowplane but I wish I could have seen them running
Man, you think a sled with a mod pipe is loud. Can you imagine riding in one of those? I would still do it in a heartbeat. Anyone got one?
