Honey, I Finished The Internet

6 Replies to “Honey, I Finished The Internet”

1. i remember one of those parked along the 1A highway just as you came into Cochrane Alberta. Silver , 40 years ago??

2. Home built, give a farmer/rancher a need, and they will fill it. Most are very creative.

3. My mum when she was a kid used to be taken to school and back in the 40’s, on a vehicle similar to these, only bigger.
   Yes it was in Saskatchewan. Common in farming communities.

4. Oh, man! I haven’t seen images of these in ~60 years. I wanted to build one when I was a kid. There was never enough snow in our region to consider having one, but a kid could dream, right?

   IIRC, I first learned of snow planes from an issue of Popular Mechanics from the ’30s. My grandma never threw anything out and I enjoyed reading my dad’s copies from the ’30s and ’40s (’til the war) when we visited the grandparents.

   Also enjoyed the National Geographics that dated back to 1906. Did I mention they never threw anything out? ;o)

5. There was a house beside the school I went to, in the Okanagan, he had 2 of them, one was made out of a Volkswagen Beetle, it had a real aircraft engine in back, a Lycoming, the other looked more like the ones in the article. I though they were really cool, as any kid would..
   They used them on the lakes in Winfield and other locations, along with the ice racers in old Datsuns and motorcycles with spiked tyres!

6. I’ve never had a ride in a snow plane but the practice of spiking the prop to start one would be an adventure. If the motor fired the contraption would immediately start to move. You’d have to run to catch it and jump in. If the throttle froze open…. If you had it tied down you would still have to get it free to get going. All of these maneuvers would come with considerable risk. The prop is spinning, there is no guard.

   Iv’e been in a jet boat (similar set up) and the noise is deafening.