Can a plane on Skis land on Sand?

[NunavutPA-12]

On the way to Hay River one time I landed skis down on a sandy forestry strip near the NWT border. Airplane comes to a stop pretty quick. It just happened that the bus was going by on the highway at the time. I hope no pilots were watching!

I didn't try taking off skis down - the ski bottoms were already chewed up enough, and it was pretty obvious that it wouldn't have worked anyway.

[trey kule]

When an aircraft skiis touch down on snow they create enough friction and heat to create a thin layer of water between them and the snow...as anyone who has flown off strip knows from them freezing to the snow afterwards.

That is not going to happen in sand.i have seen ski planes landed on strips with the wheels up. They stop fast. And getting them airborne again...?

But. Low pressure tires should have no problem, and where those camels were walking, almost can use a plane with simple oversize.

The question in these types of situations is " I want to land here, how can it be done?"

I think the answers would be much more practical.

[Dasher310]

I spent many many hours flying a DHC-6 on intermediate wheels around the Sahara with hundreds of off strip landings and take offs and never really had a huge problem with soft sand, one learns to read the sand pretty quick, except for around the dunes I can't actually recall seeing that much really soft stuff, the biggest problem was washboard surfaces, sharp stones, ruts from heavy vehicles and such.