Originally Posted by
No Fly Zone
I've never flown anything (except myself) on skis. If a run-up is possible, how does one go about it? Toss out a couple of anchors? Tie the aircraft to an edge marker?
A couple of ways. Leave your tailwheel/ski tied down until your engine is sufficiently warmed, do your runup, shut down, untie, start up and go flying.
If you're operating from a lake, generally that gives you enough room to push the throttle up to 1700 or so and do a mag check. If not on a lake, just use whatever you're planning on using for a runway, if it's long enough to take off on skis, it's almost certainly going to give you adequate space to do a sliding run up.
Unless you're on extremely hard slippery conditions, idle RPM is usually not enough to keep you moving. If you let the skis sit in one place for 30 seconds or so, they will freeze to the snow requiring considerable power to break free. Chances are good you can do a runup without sliding, then power up a bit more to break free.
Anyone who says you can't run up on skis, period, probably hasn't actually flown skis.