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(Updated 2002-01-06 and 2002-12-21, after test flying)
There is a lot of snow so far this winter, so making a pair of skis for your SkyBug (or other small/medium size model) seems the natutral thing to do. The skis are easy to make. The skis in the pictures below were made in the following way:
Each ski is made up of two pieces of thin (0,6 mm) ply, 200 x 45 mm in size. This size is right for a park flyer type of aeroplane (5-600 gr). Make them bigger if you have a larger (heavier) model , especially if you are flying from soft snow. On a harder surface, e.g. a snowplowed field, the smaller size is OK though.
The upright supports are made of 3 mm ply, the size and shape are not important, but I made them 25 mm high, that is half the diameter of the wheels normally used.
The four thin ply pieces are first wet at one end and bent over a suitable round object (tin can) and when dry, they will have bent-up tips. In order to get a permanent shape, I epoxi glue (laminate) two pieces together. That will give a ski just under 1,5 mm in thickness. The upright supports are glued on the skis. The pivot point should be slightly behind the middle of the skis, on the pictures they are a bit too forward. An aft pivot point helps keeping the ski tips from cutting down in soft snow! I used a plastic tube to get a more stable ski attachment. The length of the tube is adjusted to give a ski position on the wheel axle that is the same as for the wheel.
You finish by adding elastic bands at the ski tips, to hold them up during flight. The right angle is given by fixed length strings from the back of the ski upright supports. The skis should be level, or slightly nose-up in flight. Do not forget to paint or varnish the skis.
 
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