I’ve seen many videos on youtube of wonderful flying in some of the more rural parts of the USA.
There are some fantastic airstrips in the mountains and/or the forests in the western half of the USA. A search of youtube for “backcountry flying” will turn up many examples.
These seem to be unattended strips, that range from “a strip of dirt that has less vegetation than the surrounding area” to “pristine grass fields hidden in the forests amount the mountains”. Most give the impression of being unattended, and all seem to be a long way from the nearest towns or villages.
Is there anywhere in Europe where you can get the same “off grid” experience? An airstrip in the mountains or forests, that is well removed from civilisation? Somewhere that you can land, with nobody around for miles, and hike off into the woods, and set up camp for the night?
I’m struggling to think of anywhere. The closest that I’ve experienced is some of the Scottish islands, but even on those, there are always people in the vicinity, and you won’t go too far without coming across someone else. You certainly won’t set up camp for the night without being noticed!
Is there any such remote airstrips in Europe, where you can really be away from civilisation….somewhere for a real adventure!?
Definitely these criteria match the Altisurfaces in the French Alps and also Pyrénées. But you can’t just go and land there, you need to do a mountain rating first or at least get a site qualification.
The AFPM (French association of mountain pilots) is the go-to place for this.
I’m sure some of our Scandinavian friends here will chime in, but I imagine these strips to most likely exist somewhere up there. The rest of Europe is just too densely populated.
172driver wrote:
I’m sure some of our Scandinavian friends here will chime in
Yepp! There are plenty of those strips in Scandinavia and if you have a seaplane there are many thousands of landing sites available.
As in indication, you can follow this (swedish)link to google maps to see for yourself. However, I would be careful to land unless I have spoken with someone local. Not because of rules but purely based on your own interest in knowing the runway condition.
172driver wrote:
I’m sure some of our Scandinavian friends here will chime in
They are all over the place. At my club there is a KLM Captain that has sort of “specialized” on this. He comes every summer, takes a week with the Army Cub and visits all the fields he can do within that week. In the winter, there are also a few ice strips on lakes that you can visit. On most of them a C-172 type will do just fine.
How do you check it for potholes? And how often can’t people get out again due to damage? I think @pilot_dar does a lot of this.
I am assuming not everyone doing this is flying one of these
Peter wrote:
How do you check it for potholes?
You can call up front to ask the condition (recommended). If not, you really should do a touch and go, with you main wheels, to try to see and “feel” the condition. Pot holes is not really that much of a problem as vegetation and animals. For instance at a mountain strip just 20 minutes from here, you should do at least one low pass, to look for and scare off animals. Sheep, reindeer and moose just love to graze at such places. Those wheels above is really only needed if you are going to land at river banks and stuff.
Definitely these criteria match the Altisurfaces in the French Alps and also Pyrénées. But you can’t just go and land there, you need to do a mountain rating first or at least get a site qualification.
A site qualification is available for altiports, but not for public altisurfaces. For those you need a full mountain qualification (wheels or skis).
No special qualification is required for microlights.
There are also many private altisurfaces, for which no qualification is required apart from prior notice to the Mairie.
ATB, Peter
(EMP UK rep.)
Spain has them by the dozen. Searching the www for “Forestal”, perhaps augmented with “aeródromo” or “pista”, will turn up some.
