Van's Air Force
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Alton Bay Feb 2, 2026
- Thread starter Nova RV
- Start date
Nice. I would love to fly there for the ice landing one of these days. I just need more practice! Your plans looks great sitting on the ice.
Tom steering can be interesting after you loose rudder authority. I have flown in there 5 times and each time is different due to conditions, but a great place to visit.
The video is from 2018 one of a few videos landing there. You will see in the video I had the guys on the ice help me turn by holding a wing to come around until I was landed up.
Braking and steering are ok as long as there as patches of compacted snow on the runway and taxiways, that said the castering nosewheel on A models is probably the least capable setup for steering since it relies on braking to turn the nose. I did ok but did have trouble turning onto the taxiway at the end due to it being pretty much just clear ice and little grip but I did manage to taxi to parking without any help. It's a dance between power and tapping brakes and blast over the rudder and momentum to turn at times. There were several Cessnas and Pipers there and a Cirrus came in as well and nobody had any issues. Conditions in David's video above are probably the hardest to navigate with almost all clear ice and maybe a little water film with very little snow to grip, kudos to him for doing as well as he did. That said, I am 100% glad I went and had a great time doing so but don't feel a need to do it again (probably).
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Have breakfast or lunch at one of the restaurants, shopping in town a lot of people out just ice fishing or snowmobiling. It is a busy place on a weekend
Av8torTom
Well Known Member
That ice looked really slick - appeared to be no snow on it at all. Nice job!
