Until last week the ski flying in most of Vermont has been pretty dismal. Warm temps kept a lot of the lakes from freezing solid enough to land upon and stop. When they were thick enough it'd rain leaving a few inches of water over the ice only to be trapped as liquid water when the snow would fall. Fun for T&G but no stopping.

We finally had enough warm weather to melt most f the snow and then it was cold, minus F cold and the lakes refroze. Next it snowed almost 12" in the last week so the lake hopping was on!

Spent a few hours flying around northern VT chasing another ski equipped ship. We even stopped for lunch. It was a blast.

Today, after a bit more snow and forecast warm up I decided to go for a short hop to enjoy the feeling of fresh, untracked snow beneath the skis. I LOVE the soft touchdown and feeling like the airplane just levitates when the new and deeper snow smooths out the surface. No snowmachine tracks, people plowing roads for ice fishing, and the low wind snowstorm left the surfaces devoid of windblown snow dunes. After the first T&G the tracks went dark so the water is back. Ugh.

Temps armed up and the snow by the hangar was getting sticky. It took a bit of pushing, pulling, yanking, and a good bit of energy to put the airplane away. While winching the airplane back into the hangar, enough snow melt water was dripping off the roof was enough to get in a towel drying bath for the top of the wings, stab, and the second washing of the windscreen this winter. It's amazing how dirty the airplane gets even when there is no wheels to toss dirt around or bugs to smash.

Winter flying is a lot of work. All a good trade for the feeling of touching down on virgin snow so softly it appears the pilot knows what they are doing.