Ice Airport 2013

[This'nThat]

Originally Posted by rdant

Well, as you know there was no snow on the ice last year and I can tell you that the runway was very difficult to make out from the air. I've flown in many times and knew where to land, but for someone there for the first time, it would have been nearly impossible to know where the runway was. And, they don't teach ice landings in pilot school!

I'm not a pilot, but it seems to me any pilot would look for all the normal Airport things and then use those as a guide. What, for instance, are "normal Airport things" you might ask? Well, here are some examples taken directly from Alton Bay:

1. The automated control tower. Here it is showing wind direction:

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2. The Passenger terminal waiting area. Here are some passenger lounge examples. I'm only showing the more
luxurious ones, of course, befitting a fine airport like Alton Bay:



3. The many fine restaurants that are on the premises. This is one of the finest around:



4. And, don't forget the baggage handlers. Watch out so they don't get in the way. Skilled baggage handlers such as these are very difficult to find these days.



I hope you will find these instructions useful for your future landings at Alton Bay. One of these days I might bind these instructions together in a formal "How to" manual as part of a public service.

[NoBozo]

THE Most Common thing an airport runway has is a white..OR black.. line painted down Centerline of the runway...including numbers at each end.

NO Centerline on the ice. NB

[RLW]

Why can't we just take a drop spreader with concrete dye and line either the sides or a center line. We use to do that with remote planes and cars both on ice and fields, and it worked good and didn't damage either surfaces. That is just this ole geezers 2¢’s worth and if this is a real problem. I guess we should let some of the past pilots that have flown into Alton give us their 2¢’s.

[Legionnaire70]

Quite a few planes on the bay today...

[NoBozo]

Originally Posted by Legionnaire70

Quite a few planes on the bay today...

That's a Rare Bird. It's a Cessna Bird Dog. Military. Used in Vietnam. Quite a few of them were Mfg in Japan under license with Japanese Language markings. NB

[Legionnaire70]

Originally Posted by NoBozo

That's a Rare Bird. It's a Cessna Bird Dog. Military. Used in Vietnam. Quite a few of them were Mfg in Japan under license with Japanese Language markings. NB

I don't know if I'd fly in anything made in Japan....

[Winnisquamguy]

Originally Posted by Legionnaire70

I don't know if I'd fly in anything made in Japan....

So I suppose you don't drive anything from Japan or watch, or listen too anything that's from Japan?

[upthesaukee]

Originally Posted by RLW

Why can't we just take a drop spreader with concrete dye and line either the sides or a center line. We use to do that with remote planes and cars both on ice and fields, and it worked good and didn't damage either surfaces. That is just this ole geezers 2¢’s worth and if this is a real problem. I guess we should let some of the past pilots that have flown into Alton give us their 2¢’s.

....Anything dark on the ice draws heat, which will promote melting of the ice. This is why when you build an ice rink in your back yard, you use a white tarp, or clear, as the liner, and why you remove hockey pucks, hockey nets, etc from the rink when not in use.

Our ice runway is usually well defined by snow banks, but to use dark colored markings could very well create more problems for the planes than it would help.