So this may be a slow news day type of story, but kind of interesting none the less. Have there been any other FAA approved in the lower 48? I'm Guessing if so they'd have been in ME, MN, MT, and/or ID.

Obviously there are some up in AK, probably year round too.

https://www.wmur.com/article/only-faa-a ... s/25997053

The FAA approval is the unique part, most lakes freeze; guys put skis on their gear and go flying. I’d love to know what exactly the FAA approved? It’s not like an airline will use it. AK lakes thaw completely so I doubt year round ice runways there.

GF

I must say this is a must see if your in the area. I live in NH myself and try to head up every weekend that it’s open.

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

The FAA approval is the unique part, most lakes freeze; guys put skis on their gear and go flying. I’d love to know what exactly the FAA approved? It’s not like an airline will use it. AK lakes thaw completely so I doubt year round ice runways there.

GF

There’s a Facebook page ran by the manager that plows it. They post quite a few videos through out the operating season. Has to be a foot thick the entire length.

I grew up working at LCI right next door. It always seemed that every winter we would have at least one aircraft that got totaled trying to land there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjlJ2GB4RMU

Here is a good video blog that did an episode about landing at B18

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Con1gVqLBk&t=19s

https://www.airnav.com/airport/B18

I find myself back in the Lakes Region as a result of the shutdown, but I might have to burn some money from savings to take advantage of being back in the area when this is open!

Peace

I've landed a Warrior there. They do a great job keeping the runway clear and (somewhat) smooth. Always a whole bunch of other aircraft parked in the south side parking area on a cold sunny day.

tomaheath wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

The FAA approval is the unique part, most lakes freeze; guys put skis on their gear and go flying. I’d love to know what exactly the FAA approved? It’s not like an airline will use it. AK lakes thaw completely so I doubt year round ice runways there.

GF

There’s a Facebook page ran by the manager that plows it. They post quite a few videos through out the operating season. Has to be a foot thick the entire length.

I don’t doubt it’s there, that it’s busy, I’ve seen articles on the ice ops there, but I’m trying understand what FAA approval is? It’s an off-airport landing, no different from a floatplane operating on same lake in summer.

GF

I thought this was going to be about BOS runway 33L

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

tomaheath wrote:

GalaxyFlyer wrote:

The FAA approval is the unique part, most lakes freeze; guys put skis on their gear and go flying. I’d love to know what exactly the FAA approved? It’s not like an airline will use it. AK lakes thaw completely so I doubt year round ice runways there.

GF

There’s a Facebook page ran by the manager that plows it. They post quite a few videos through out the operating season. Has to be a foot thick the entire length.

I don’t doubt it’s there, that it’s busy, I’ve seen articles on the ice ops there, but I’m trying understand what FAA approval is? It’s an off-airport landing, no different from a floatplane operating on same lake in summer.

Technically it's an on-airport landing though, since it's a designated airport with a runway when the lake is frozen in that location. I assume that may have something to do with it.

Huh. I have family in Alton and used to spend summers in Alton Bay. Go figure.

Interesting. This story reminded me of a proposed project during World War II that would make an entire aircraft carrier out of ice. Well, not just frozen water, but ice mixed with wood pulp and/or sawdust. The compound was dubbed Pykrete, after Geoffrey Pyke, the British inventor who thought up the process of making the stuff and came up with the idea of using it to make what would be, at the time, the world's largest aircraft carrier. Pyke presented his proposal to Lord Mountbatten, who, in turn, presented it to Sir Winston Churchill, who was so enthusiastic about it that he wanted to use pykrete to make an entire "floating island" in the middle of the Atlantic. The artificial island was to be the home of an entire air base, where warplanes would be based to hunt down German u-boats and keep the troop-and-materiel convoys from North America safe from attack by the Luftwaffe.

Scale models were actually built and tests were performed, but the project never flew . . . or sailed, for that matter. Here are a couple of links to Wikipedia articles for pykrete and the proposed projects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

So this is how the FAA has been using its resources during the shut down?... Approving ice runways in the backwaters of New Hampshire.

I’m sure the airlines have some questions for the FAA as to why they’re spending time approving this and not clearing their new aircraft deliveries.

All this in jest. I assume approval happened a while ago

77H

77H wrote:

So this is how the FAA has been using its resources during the shut down?... Approving ice runways in the backwaters of New Hampshire.

I’m sure the airlines have some questions for the FAA as to why they’re spending time approving this and not clearing their new aircraft deliveries.

All this in jest. I assume approval happened a while ago

77H

There’s a lot of hard work done in keeping this thing open. Wouldn’t suprise me if it was all volunteers that do it. From what I read it’s inspected by the state.

I also thought this was about BOS! hahaha

Closed today because of standing water and fog. I would imagine it’ll open back up this weekend with the cold temps coming back.

tomaheath wrote:

Closed today because of standing water and fog. I would imagine it’ll open back up this weekend with the cold temps coming back.

I can confirm from the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee that temps have warmed to near 50! Temps expected to plummet after today with sub-zero temps expected next week.

https://www.facebook.com/AltonBaySeapla ... IceRunway/

Peace