Permitted landing on roads
 

I recall (I think) that above a certain latitude in Norway/Sweden/Finland you can legally land on roads.

Is this mere optimistic fantasy, or are there regulations allowing this?

Heading that way tomorrow for a few days, and figure it would be a fun thing to do...

Fly safe, Sam.

Alaska allows it, but I'm not sure the Nordic countries do. Not as I recall, but it was 20 years ago I flew there, so..

Sweden, like other countries including South Africa, has sections of highway designed to double as runways during wartime. SAAB Viggens were designed to operate from such runways. As far as I'm aware it's only for military purposes, though I guess it would be handy to know where they in case of emergency - you'd just have to fins a way to get rid of those pesky cars.

I guess most countries have those highway sections that can be used as landing strips at wartime. Germany has loads of them (still waiting for the Soviet invasion). However, they usually need to be setup, lane dividers and road signs removed, etc.

There are two or three sections of motorway in Cyprus (south) that have:
Huge hinges on the roadsigns.
Removable central crash barriers.
Rectangular white markings on the road surface.
Large square concrete areas near the white markings.
Wonder what they're for?

Some nice pictures on Wikipedia, also here. The famous Ramstein Airbase (US Air Force) evolved from an Autobahn landing strip. There are about 30 highway strips in Germany, you can spot them when there is no vegetation between the lanes but concrete.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...T-84-09439.jpg

From what I've seen of the condition of the roads in Sweden, particularly in the North I'm not sure you would want to land a plane on it :). The deep winter does some shocking things to the roads :). Plenty of lovely and quiet airfields around though.

Here's from Latvia AIP

Non-commercial private flights are permitted for take-off and land at:

- any certified aerodrome listed in Latvian AIP in accordance with the procedures as prescribed;
- any non-certified aerodrome;
- any other suitable place over land or water (ice).

Note: For take-off and landing on places other than a certified aerodrome the permission of the aerodrome or land/water (ice) owner may be required. Permission to use a certified aerodrome listed in AIP has to be requested only if Prior Permission required (PPR) is stated in section AD 2.3 Operational Hours.

So, perhaps, permission must be granted from someone responsible for roads, not CAA.

I know, there also was situation with mayday airplane (carburator icing) landed on highway. After landing he asked permission for takeoff, but was not allowed. Probably, it was not because of highway, but because of recent mayday. I'm not sure...

I once alarmed a quite aviation aware passenger (but a Canadian) by suggesting that an interesting landmark we were looking at had a long straight desert road beside it and a convenient parking lot and that we might 'drop in'.

"You're not really going to do that are you?" he asked. No, I wasn't, because it was quite a narrow road and it was in Oregon, but to my Canadian passenger the idea was evidently quite plausible.

It's been done in the UK, this was on the M55 before it opened to vehicle traffic

I've seen it done regularly in places like Wyoming - it's common courtesy to drag the road first just in case...........

From my experience of the gutless and unreliable wonder that was the mighty Jaguar, that was a very lightweight aeroplane, in full reheat, with a very nervous pilot.

Do microlight pilots in that part of the world still land in the field behind the Wisbech service station and go in for a chip buttie. I did that once with an instructor when learning to fly flexwings back in the day.

G

All over Australia, particularly in remote areas of the Outback, there are sections of road designated as landing strips for the RFDS.
I've done a search but have so far failed to find any details of the incident in Shropshire when a light aircraft landed by mistake on a stretch of newly constructed but unopened road. I think it was near Ludlow and the pilot thought he was landing at Shobdon.

Aircraft landed on Leominster Industrial park
 

It was some years ago & the details are a little hazy, but as I remember the Rallye aircraft was talking to Shobdon Radio, called field in site & then Finl for 27.
After a few minutes the staff at Shobdon became concerned as no aircraft had landed, and initiated a search.
The aircraft was found on a new piece of road on a new industrial park to the south of Leominster, it had sleeping policemen all along it's length, as well as street lights so an easy mistake !,

Thank you David, that's the one I was thinking of. :ok:
Edited to add, I've never seen speed bumps on 27, ruts in a rain-sodden taxiway occasionally, but not speedbumps. Maybe I need to pay a bit more attention. ;)

Handy, yes. Allowed, no. It's forbidden to mark the location of such strips and you can be prosecuted for doing so (no kidding!). Although in the age of Google Earth anybody can now scout for them from the safety of their home. Unless they are blanked out like military installations in the Netherlands, which would make them even easier to spot. Just look for the blanked-out strips of road. :E

Ciao,

Dg800

The chap told me that the first indication that he had that it wasn't a runway was when the wing tip hit a street light. I think glare (rwy 27) was a factor and perhaps a warning to us all that anyone can screw up.

davidjohnstone and DX Wombat -

Just out of curiosity I decided to have a look for an industrial estate to the south of Leominster on Google Earth, and see if I could find any roads that could be mistaken for runways, and I found one...

... And I found the right one! Because if you zoom in to it there are a few image buttons you can click, one of which is entitled 'Ooops my mistake'.

Type in 'Owen Way, Leominster' into the search function on Google Earth, the pictures of the aircraft after landing are all there, and to be fair to the pilot, even though some alarm bells should have started ringing during the final stages of the approach, I can definitely see how you could mistake that area for an airfield, given that the buildings on the East side of the road kind of look like hangars from above! :ok:

Thanks for that HB. :ok: