I never experienced any problems with the "small" wheels, having landed on soft sand many times. One of our Tin Pins nosed over on Sir Abu Nu'ayr Island after an embedded rock caused a swing and it nosed over when the pilot braked too hard while correcting it. The Twin Pin in photos 3 & 4 show the distance covered in a flapless landing.
The flaps and slats were inoperative (locked up with blocks of wood jubilee clipped into the runners). The reason - sand clogged up the Hydro/mechanical Heath Robinson bicycle chain and cog mechanism until a chain snapped. It happened twice to me when the flaps and slats were retracted after take of, one side came up and the other didn't move! Quickly reselecting T/Off F/S saved the day. It was the only near serviceable Twin Pin at the time and the aircraft was urgently needed to support and re-supply the SAS operating in South Oman, so we flew it for two weeks in this condition. What nobody realised was that the only auto hydraulic bleed was in the flap/slat system. The brakes became more and more spongy and before landing the pedals had to be pumped to build up pressure. After several days this began to lose it's ineffectiveness, so I took the aircraft to Bait al Falaj for the Airwork to look into the fading brake problem and they discovered the auto bleed was idle. After landing the brakes failed completely and we ran off the end of the runway, rumbled slowly down a shallow incline and ended up in the Colonel Smiley's back garden. No damage done, fortunately. After that we had to visit Bait every three days for Airwork to bleed the brakes.
Soft sands no problem.
