A quick remark following Greg’s comments on the the type of ‘landing gear solutions for bush planes‘. Not too often, but you can see them, ‘Bush Tires’, here in Alberta. The rationale is that, I believe, Alberta is more facilitated with decent aerodromes and airstrips than ‘truly bush’ countries like Alaska, NWT, or Yukon. However ‘relatively remote’ communities may be, they are still connected to the ‘rest of the world’ fairly well, and there’s a ground transport option available in many cases. Thus, I assume, folks put bush tires on their recreational planes mostly for the ‘kick of it’ 
This ‘Cub’ (maybe, a good example of nicely rebuilt ‘Super Cub’) was spotted in one of the hangars at Springbank airport. Before that ‘memorable tour’ (courtesy of Butch), I had never seen so funny looking tires put on a small plane. Certainly, they attracted my attention.
As for use of large size tires on Russian bush aircraft.. It’s hard to say, if there’s any that I’ve seen lately. However, I’m keeping my eye open, browsing their aviation sites in that quest.
This picture from ‘aviaforum.ru’ provided by a friend of mine Ivan. reveals no ‘big bulky boots’ put on this ‘Bush ‘King‘ Nor skies either. Interesting, I’ll try to find out what would be the operational considerations when they decide what type of landing gear to choose for winter season.
Once I bumped into a photo showing some ‘off-road’ pattern on the large Ilyushin-76’s tires. Ilyushins are being widely operated in Siberian remote areas, quite often - on the gravel and turf, for they play a vital role in supporting communities and businesses over there. Actually, it’s not totally inconceivable to give a thought to this large cargo plane as a pretty good candidate for winning in an ‘Ultimate Russian Bush Plane’ contest
Recent Comments