US East Coast

[andrewc]

I was out in the Boston area on holiday last month...had a
lovely flight in a Cherokee-6 taking my relatives around
Cape Cod on a smooth and beautiful day.

The very interesting difference from flying in the UK was
that there really wasn't anywhere to land if the fan stopped.

Almost all of the ground was covered by woodland, the farms
have all turned into suburbs or woodlots. Real contrast
with the UK where there are plenty of fields outside town
centres.

Made me concentrate on the local airfields...

-- Andrew

[Aussie Andy]

I've only flown once in the US, in a mate's aircraft from Connecticut up to Vermont, then back down over the area you mention. I agree as I was also struck in many parts by the forest cover etc. However, I also noticed that there were many many more bona fide airfields around, so my overall impression was that for most problems, such as wx or rough running, there would be more choices around than in many other places.

I understand from friends who fly at home in Australia, where they have both a lot of bush and relatively few airfields, that the choice often comes to letting down as slow as you can in the tree canopy... it will hurt and won't be pleasant, but they can absorb a lot of the energy and this can be survivable.

I also understand that golf-courses and beaches in coastal/urban areas are often considered for forced landings...

Still, I think we have it realtively easy in most parts of our relatively benign UK environment in this respect.

[FWA NATCA]

Andrew,

You will find many heavyily forested areas throughout the US. As an air traffic controller, it never ceases to amaze me when I watch some pilot on radar flying so low that if the engine quit they would never make it to a safe landing. Also another item that never ceases to amaze me are pilots who are willing to fly low level over the Great Lakes (average water temp in the summer is less than 60 degrees), my philosophy is if I can't get high enough to glide to either shore I don't attempt to fly across the lake.

It is also true that golf courses do make good landing strips, just watch out for sand traps and the ocassional dog leg turn.

Mike

[mattpilot]

.... just make sure you yell 'fore' (or is it 'four'?) before you land :)

on a more serious note... people actually dont recommend to land on golf courses because they are very bumpy.

Where i live, if i fly at 10000ft MSL (~+9000ft AGL) i am always within gliding distance of an airfield. This will probably be true for almost any area, except maybe the West.