Landing at Alton Bay

Well, it's been a cold winter this year and there hasn't been much time to do any flying. Once the temperatures gets below 20 degrees and the wind starts to howl, it's not much fun getting bounced around in the sky.

But every once in a while all the stars align and we get a beautiful day.

I've always wanted to go to Alton Bay but was nervous about the winds and the ice. I had an incident landing at Southbridge in Massachusetts when there was a little bit of black ice on the runway. I saw it in the pattern but really didn't pay much attention to it because it couldn't have been more the 200 feet long and on one side of the runway. Well, I should have taking it a little more seriously. With a stiff crosswind I hit the ice and started going towards the snow banks. I don't know how I was able to get it straighten out but somehow managed to get it back on the dry runway after a few really terrifying moments.

Well when the forecast looked good for January 30th, I decided to give it a try. The winds were out of the north 8 to 10 knots and the skies were beautiful. I called the morning of the flight and spoke to  Paul LaRochelle who gave me the good news. Conditions were just great.

The flight up was uneventful and I decide to make a low approach to get a good look at the runways and check the winds. There were already a few planes there and from my approach it looked fairly benign. I made one loop in the pattern and came around for a landing.

Here's my approach:

Everything went perfect. I spent some time walking around and met many people who were really glad that "the planes were back!" Many come out just to watch the planes land and I've been told there have been some doozies. Spent some time talking the guy who plows the snow and he gave me a history of the runway and the many different conditions they have run into. It was great to be there.

Quite honestly, the most difficult part of the whole day was taxing back to the runway. I actually started to slide a bit in the wind and did not use the throttle enough to keep myself straight. Sure enough I ended stuck in the snow off the runway and had to get out to push myself off.  But once I got back on track I was able to make it to the runway and depart to the south. All in all a great day and a lot of fun.