And it's 10 minutes from home. Nothing to do today so decided to take a ride to Alton Bay and snap a few pics. Alton Bay is the southern tip of Lake Winnepsaukee and the runway shares the lake with ice fisherman, snow mobiles and all other winter activities.
First accident in years happened yesterday-wing clipped a snow bank. Luckily no one was hurt. Although FAA approved, it is maintained by volunteers. There is no traffic control only a runway manager who is on the ice with a hand held radio.
One of the pilots said that they love coming in here for the experience of an ice runway. He also mentioned that if you cant land without using brakes, you dont want to attempt this place.
Runway is now closed !! Guess this guy needed brakes 2nd accident in 3 days. This one closed the runway until the aircraft can be removed. Witnesses say the touchdown was fine but we was too fast. Not clear as to if this happened when landing or if when taxiing too fast to make a corner after touchdown. This one is not my photo....
Doesn't take much to be out of control and run into things. Really nice photos. We definitely don't have those sorts of runways on the island here. Not enough ice!!!
I could see the need to pack a snow shovel! If the wind was blowing at all , stopping would be hard even at a slow taxi speed!
Only high winds seem to bother these pilots as I have been there many times on windy days and there is plenty of traffic. This was the one only year that I saw any issues-and those 2 accidents happened days apart from each other. One was pilot error as he misjudged a snow bank and clipped it, the other was while landing- must have been too fast. As far as taxi speed, you never hear the engines throttled up to a constant-they are always feathering so they dont go too fast. At this point, it is closed for the season as we are finally getting warmer weather in.
