PPRuNe Forums - Icelandic Aviation

Hi all :ok:

Just got back from an incredible 5 days in the beautiful country of Iceland, we were treated to blue skies every day and brilliant Northern Lights displays each night, can't believe how lucky we got.

We hired a car for the length of our stay and covered not far off 1000km over 3 days (spent a day in Isafjordur too, from Reykjavik City).

What surprised me was the amount of small airstrips there was dotted around the country, ones that I remember seeing are Selfoss, Hella and one just south of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull, clearly marked out with large orange cones.

I'm just curious as to how much General Aviation activity there is in Iceland? Some of the strips I saw appear to be in the 'middle of nowhere' type locations, particuarly the one next to Eyjafjallajökull. Googling I see there are 60+ registered airstrips dotted around the country :eek:

I'm not a pilot and have no GA flying experience but do have a keen interest in all things aviation so it interested me as to what the majority of these seemingly abandoned strips are used for, such as Selfoss that had a nice looking waiting room/tower and a large car park (with no cars in it).

Thanks :ok: