Bush Flying in Modern Siberia
De-mythology, Freedom of Choice, Times&Spaces, Bush Operation on both sides of Arctic Add comments
Just look at that, - it is a moment of real day-to-day life, an episode of very authentic ‘bush operation’ in Siberia! A guy, who posted this image on a Russian aviation forum called ‘aviaforum.ru’, said the crew of technicians are changing the landing gear on this An-2.
Before this moment the plane has been operated on skies, but they are now switching to wheel. However, it looks like the winter is still in full force. Driven by curiosity, I asked, “what operational factors would be considered before making a decision for such a change”. And as our correspondent put it, “it’s at a discretion of the flight operation in the company to decide when it is necessary to switch the landing gear from one kind to another”. Left me willing to solicite for further detail, though 
Which I do now.
I guess, they use that discretion, based on some sort of seasonal weather forecast, and operational situation in the flight region (primary factor, I believe, can be the ‘landing strips’ conditions’) As far as I know, the ‘wheel skies’ aren’t common in Siberia. (You can see Greg’s comments on how many types of landing gear can be used on Twin Otter in this post)
He said it is ‘pretty routine operation, and with man power like you see on the picture, they would do it in approximately 2.5 hours. ‘Reverse switch’, from wheels to skies, would take the same amount of time.
Cool stuff..
February 11th, 2009 at 5:51 pm
For Twin Otter operations wheel skis are used to take off from a paved runway where no ice or snow surface is available (for example departing South America for Antarctica), then landing on skis where wheels would not work (snow surface). Once operating on ice/snow surfaces the wheels are not required however they are better for landing on pure ice (using the wheels as opposed to the skis), but not absolutely necessary.(Some surfaces in the interior of the Antarctic are pure ‘blue’ ice where are the snow is sublimated and blown clear of snow.) The ’straight boards’ (straight skis, no wheels)are lighter and stronger than the wheel skis, operating on rough surfaces wheel skis are subject to more damage, popped rivets, crumpled metal, snapped cables, so, if they aren’t required operationally it is better to switch over to straight skis. It takes longer for the engineers to switch a Twin Otter from wheels to wheel skis than from wheels to straight boards.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Greg,
Thank you for a relevant and succinct comment. It’ll certainly help us to piece together a great ‘Comparative Analysis of Bush Operation on both sides of Arctic Ocean’. Let me point out one obvious difference: there’s not too many aircraft types involved now in ‘pure bush flying’ across Siberia and Russia’s Arctic, though. And they don’t use the term ‘bush’ respectively. But, still, - they have been flying there for ages!
Keep in touch, please. We are about to continue exploring this interesting subject,
Talk to you,
S
P.S.
Just stumbled across a nice picture of ‘Wheel-Ski Twin Otter’ on Flickr.