I know that 20#/ft of snow collapse most chicken houses in Arkansas and it
can weight up to 40#. It should not be a problem to aircraft, even a
T-Craft. We did watch a derelict C-150 tail fall to the ground and then
jump back up all winter long at the local airport several winters ago. I
guess thats another reason Cessna says to tie the nose gear down too. What
was really interesting is that you could hear the ice blocks bump around in
the fuel tanks all the way across the ramp when it would crash back on its
nose wheel after the snow would slide off the horizontal. The next late
summer, the owner finally went flying without even doing a preflight or
sumping his fuel. You'd be surprized how many eyes are at the little sleepy
airports watching what goes on.


"Michael Horowitz" wrote in message
...
Assuming wet snow on the wings of a highwing (Taylorcraft in this
case),

Because of the presence of the struts, I'm trying to visualize if the
spars would be hurt by the weight.

I've viewing the strut attach point as a pivot point. Assuming an even
distribution of snow, the moment around that point would be zero and
no harm done.

are there other forces I should take into account? - Mike

PS - she's tied down so if snow slipped off one wing, the tie-down
would prevent excessive tipping.