alaska-landing on roads?

[Asrian]

Hi,
is landing on normal roads part of the PPL-training syllabus in Alaska?
I think I watched something like that in one of those alaska flying documentaries on TV. Or was it just made-up dramatized action for the TV audience?

[claser111]

No, don't worry! It's just a tv show, nobody use to land in normal roads...even in Alaska!;)

[Doodlebug]

claser111, don't know about Alaska, but some have done plenty of 'road-landings' in years gone by. Sometimes it's all you've got.

[surveytheworld]

Look up "Eagle Plains" airport. It's next door to Alaska, in the Yukon, and it actually uses part of the Dempster Highway as the airstrip. I'm sure there are more airports like this, but it's the only one I know off the top of my head.

[claser111]

Honestly I don't know if it's part of the syllabus for PPL Training, I understand that you can try once (without landing) to see how to handle an emergency situation. In Alaska, around Anchorage, there are a lot of small planes able to land within very short distances, you can see these guys landing everywhere!!! Landing on a normal road must be for an emergency situation I guess. ;)

[MarkerInbound]

The FAA publishes the tasks that must be covered for each certificate and rating they issue. The same PTS applies where ever you take a FAA checkride. Landing on roads is not in the PTS. There is "emergency approach and landing" for the private certificate. That's where the instructor pulls the power and asks, "What are you going to do now?" There have been some cases where after the student has run the checklist and set up an approach the engine really has failed and they end up in a field. But normally I'd think most school's insurance would prohibit "off airport operations."

[Asrian]

Thanks for Your replies!
Ok, I found it on my hard drive:
Its on "Alaska Wing Men", Episode "Explosive Cargo", Minute 42:30 to 45:42.
Student pilot and instructor training emergency landing on a road full of traffic. They land on the road and take-off later.
The narrator says:"In Alaska its perfectly legal for bush pilots to land on a road full of traffic."
Looks like some advanced training here for a young wannabe bush pilot.

Your freedom of flying there is absolutely amazing and fascinating because in my country everything is "verboten" and anything "off-airport" is a strict no-no...

[A Squared]

Well, Alaska state law specifically states that is is legal to land on roads, as long as you don't interfere with the traffic. (or words to that effect).

So it it is legal to land on roads, but it isn't legal to land on "a road full of traffic", and landing on roads is actually fairly uncommon.

I've flown most of my life in Alaska and while I've landed on beaches and river bars and glaciers ad mountain tops, I haven't ever had occasion to land on a road. I'd consider it in an emergency, but your tv show is selling a bunch of mostly inaccurate hype.