Thanks for the additional info!
The use of the runway in the middle of the Sahara is to serve the medieval town of Chinguetti, which is an endangered site. See: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/endangered-site-chinguetti-mauritania-54168194/?no-ist
The town is of importance to Muslims as well and considered one of the most important cities of the Islam. Also known for the yearly camel races and the very old lhome libraries. Interesting place and worth a visit on your next flight :-)
How about Chinguetti in the middle of the Sahara in Mauritania.
That’s a very large, nice looking dirt runway considering its in the middle of nowhere. What’s its use?
Aart, that helicopter landscape looks a bit like the Dolomites… Maybe a bit too dry… there are doubtless similar areas elsewhere ;-) Looks like fun anyway. A friend and start pac manufacturer used to take us to places like that in his Hughes 369 once in a while.
A little outpost of civilization (and an airstrip) shown in the photo below. As long as your defintion of civilization doesn’t include running water :-) A little further down the road is the airstrip. PPR wouldn’t work unless you had a ham radio. I wasn’t PIC on this flight but have been there many other times on the road. It was really remote before they built the paved road from the U.S. in the early 70s, shortening a three or four day drive to just one. Hence the runway – the Rancho was a significant post on the Baja 1000 off road race.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rancho_Santa_Inés_Airstrip
Here are a bunch of others in the same area.
How about Chinguetti in the middle of the Sahara in Mauritania.
Nothing around for hours and hours of flying time (thanks to the extra ferry tanks). I think we flew at least for 6-7 hours before hitting something again. And … no radar environment and no radio contact. Total silence :-)
I always find those strips cut out for pylons and so in rather jarring in Scandinavia – like a scar across the landscape
Enroute Kebnekaise (near Kiruna/Sweden), many miles between the villages in northern Sweden.
One place that I found to be rather remote was 9A4 in Courtland, Alabama. Mainly for two reasons: Never in my life I would have expected to visit Alabama. This place was completely dead – Huge hangars all over the place and this fire truck, but in the end no sign of life anywhere. My impression: two big runways with a gas station and a porta potty.
Short final to Vagar EKVG for the eclipse earlier this year:
And on the climbout just before totality:
OK, when I’m old, fat and ugly I’ll retire in Spain (like so many Germans and Brits that match these criteria) and finally get a helicopter license.
There is a theoretical chance to get a private heliport approved in Germany but you have to convince the municipality and the Bundesland that it is of economic value. It is generally not approved for pleasure. Landing outside an officially approved heliport requires an expensive and hard to get one time permit, otherwise is considered to be an off airport landing which is a criminal offence.
In my estimation, more than 90% of helicopters in Germany serve some official purpose like police, ambulance, military, etc.
