Alton Winter Carnival
 

I Googled this and didn't come up with much...Particularly The Fly In. Is the Fly In going to happen this year?.. especially with the ICE Problem.

There have been some recent "incidents" where pilots have had "issues" on landing, and done serious ($$$) damage to their planes.

One in particular where an Cirrus SR-22 (valued @ +/- $750,000.) landed Down Wind..never a good option...:look: and BENT the airplane. "Ding Bang Ow" comes to mind.

Is it possible that the Fly In is a thing of the past...haven't been paying enough attention.. NB

Runway
 

As far as I know the runway has not been open this year. I think it only got marked out and then the weather did not cooperate.

Winter Carnival is on..
 

Winter Carnival is on, and will be held on Sunday Feb. 21st. It will be held regardless of the ice condition, with plans to have the festivities across the street from the lake, to the left of Pop's if the ice is not safe enough for crowds.

Alton Bay runway is not open, and is not looking good to be opened. They do have the markers out so that folks with bob houses will not put a bob house where the runway is, or in the parking area. Still a chance that it will open, but it is slim at best.

To answer your question, No Bozo, the fly-in will occur when Mother Nature gives her blessing. Too much snow means plowing can be difficult especially for the volunteers who are taking their own vehicles out to plow. And this year, of course, the lack of ice is the problem. Paul, the airport manager, is still committed to the runway for what it can do for the businesses in the bay.

The two incidents at the Alton Runway were both pilot error. One tail-dragger that got caught up with some wind at the threshold and spun out next to the band stand. The other was the aforementioned Cirrus that landed an estimated halfway down the runway, with a tailwind, and no braking. Prior to that, the operations at the airport have been pretty much normal since I have lived here, since 1996.

Bottom line, the volunteers that put these things on do what they can, with what they have to work with. And if anyone is wondering, the reason the Carnival is not on President's Day weekend is that the organizers felt that it would be too many people on the bay with the Fishing Derby going on the same weekend. So the decision was made to push it back a week to the 21st, not a bad decision. Of course, the Derby subsequently pushed their dates back two weeks.

Can't win for losing, sometimes. :rolleye2:

Alton Bay Seaplane Base and Ice Runway FB page
 

From the Alton Bay Seaplane Base and Ice Runway FB Page:

Hi everyone!
On Sunday went out on foot to check out the ice on the bay . We did lose ice we had 5/12" to 7 " we really need 12 or more inches to open . I did remove the yellow markers . But if it stays cold long enough to get the ice we need we could try to open. Has been a warm winter so far. I will keep checking.

This was posted about 40 minutes ago or so.