the spring member 75 of the full swivel wheel 73 and pulls the aft portion 57 upward until the latch pins 69 latch within the respective latching mechanisms 65a or 65b the ski 27 is now in a forward flight or landing configuration as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art or to those familiar with helicopter operations some forward moment by the helicopter will cause the relative wind contacting the aft portion 57 of the ski 27 to partially rotate the aft portion 57 into parallel configuration hence less effort is thus required by the operator to lift and latch the aft portion 57 to the forward portion 55 in addition by using forward momentum to raise the aft portion the operator would not be required to reach down nearly as far with the grapple hook to grasp the aft portion 57 this makes the latching operation safer referring now to fig6 and 8 there is shown one of the latching mechanisms used to secure the aft portion 57 securely to the forward portion 55 in a substantially parallel configuration with respect to the longitudinal axis of the helicopter fig6 and 7 show the assembled latching mechanism fig6 showing the latch.