Ice Airport 2013
 

I've been reading the Ice-In thread and heard from Paul a week or two ago that the ice was already fairly thick in Alton Bay. As near as I can tell right now there is very little snow cover and we've had a few days of sub zero temps. It must be getting close, but has anyone seen trucks out on the ice there? That's usually a pretty good indication that it will handle the planes very soon. ;)

No trucks out there today, but you're right -- it's getting close. To be safe, you need 8-12 inches of ice for a car or small pickup, and 12-15 inches for a medium truck. At current temperatures (0-15 degrees), ice thickness grows at a rate of 2-2.5 inches per day. By Friday, we will have had 4 days of these temperatures -- so Alton Bay ice should be at least 8-10 inches on top of what was there at the end of last weekend.

A small plane (Cessna 172) weighs just over 1500 pounds. A 2007 Toyota Tacoma pickup 4x4 weighs 4000 pounds. Youse can takes your picks. I'd land a 172 0n 8 inches. YUP. :) NB

It's all about spreading the weight around on a bigger patch of ice. The worst case: 500 pounds on the footprint of a snow machine...most of that weight on the track. The wheels of a light plane are spread out to make a bigger foot print....LESS Pounds per square foot on the ICE. GOOD: NB

NoBozo

I read somewhere they had 12" and that was before this cold snap.Would you land and park them in the lines they do and have no worries about going through the ice?

My shack is half way up the runway on the left, last weekend ice thickness varied from 9 inches to 6 inches within only 50 feet!

There was a Toyota Tacoma out there last Sunday. Ice is safe but again it varies.
Also, a four wheeler went in the drink in the bay last Saturday, mainly because the guy was an idiot and should have known he shouldn't have been in the area he was.

I certainly hope the planes this year can land ON the designated runway and NOT in the road we had plowed to access our shacks. I find it hard to believe the guy confused our road with the runway, and this is a licensed pilot??!!

speed
 

45 mph speed limit on lake , how does a plane land & take off ???

Welcome back Dave. It is nice to see you back here on the blog because when your name comes up we alll know we are getting to be close to the winter carnival day and all you guys/gals fly in and par-take in the fun activities here in the bay. You people sure make it enjoyable to watch you come and go on the ice and for many to view the different planes.
Hope things go great weather wise so that we all can see a wonderful fly-in this year.:)

Planes are exempt from the Boat speed limit which is when the lake is not frozen...and the Marine Patrol is watchin.. I don't think there is a speed limit on the ICE. :look: NB

PS: ALL activities on the ICE require Experience in "Reading" the ICE and Common Sense.

Winter activities on winnipesaukee are exempt from ANY Speed limits. Only snowmobile trails are posted @ 45 mph in the state of NH.

However; you must go 10mph or less within 150 feet of a bob house,tip ups, cusk lines etc.

We were out there fishing about 300 feet northwest of the band stand in Alton Bay and there was a good 12-13" of ice on Sunday (pre cold snap)

Again as posted, ice thickness varies.

There was a guy out on Meredith Bay with a small truck about 200 yards off shore near the boat ramp.

Two trucks on the Bay @ noon today...if that gives you an idea on how much ice...

As has been noted exempt when landing and taking off.

Unless otherwise posted lakes have no speed limits when covered with ice.
This applies to ATV's and snowmobiles. The exception is a few lakes with posted speed limits in Pittsburg.

Unless I was reading incorrectly I thought the rule read within 150 feet of an occupied bob house. If correct how is one to know.
Just curious, as we do not ride in NH and personally as with boats, I'd rather be well away from others when cruising up the lake, because many times it is in the 80-100mph region when we are on our sleds.

I drove out to my shack yesterday to do some repairs, previous ice check was 11.5" - 13" depending on where I checked. Seems like ares with snow before the thaw are a little thinner than areas that were bare or black ice.
But plenty for my little 2.3 ranger.
Ran into Paul out there and he was chevking Ice thickness for airport and from ramp to bandstand he was getting 11.5" - 12" and he was headed towards the runway to check that out. He said if it is consistant than he could be out as soon as today to start plowing.
Let the winter activities begin but be safe out there, wear your cleats, you will need them.
And as always, my shack is the first one between the ramp and the bandstand, tan with table attached. Please stop in for a cup of hot beverage and shoot the breeze.

Riverat

I'll stop by tomorrow... Be out @ 0-dark 30!

may not be out until sunday, if flags flying than i'm home.

plowing started
 

From the parking lot we could see that the plane parking area and at least some of the runway had been plowed. Some small orange cones are marking the areas and the windsock is flying over the bandstand.

Maybe one of the pilots can post here when the NOTAM announcing the opening is issued.

It's officially open per NOTAM and per phone call with Paul!


Just opened late this afternoon (3:40 EST).






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Yup...open!
 

I had a shot at being first today. I was flying into Laconia and decided to go take a look. The Boston controller told me it had just opened with 2500x100 available. Wifey shot a few pics but wasn't happy with the turbulence or the bank angle needed for a good one. We continued on to Laconia.:(

Lots of planes today, lots of vehicles, lots of people. great day!

Sounds great. That's what we wait for during the winter months, that is the ice fishermen having a ball fishing through a hole in the ice and the air planes come to their ice runway and give the general public some enjoyment and watching and meeting them also keeping Paul busy. It's to bad that the Ole Bay Diner is closed for the week.:)

Love to see some Pic's .....

Always enjoy seeing those as we cannot get up there :(
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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!

Instructions for finding the Alton Bay airport
 

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:

Attachment 7425[

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:

Attachment 7426

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

Attachment 7427

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.

Attachment 7428

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.

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. :look: :look: NB

How to tell runway
 

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.:)

Quite a few planes on the bay today...

Possible problem...
 

....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.

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. :look: NB

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?