When I did my BFR in the US, we all but did a touch and go on a road – can’t have been more than a few metres above it. The advice was that as long as you are sure there aren’t any lampposts or power lines, you’re way safer landing on a road than elsewhere.
But those are American roads. The towns tend to be based on blocks rather than pre-medieval field boundaries and go in reasonably straight lines. They often have more than 1 lane. They’re generally wider and there’s about 215 metres of road per inhabitant.
In the UK a large A-road will often be only 7 metres wide with hedges starting a foot away from the paved edge of the road. There are 65 metres of road per person, so on average they’ll be busier. A C150 has a wingspan of 10 metres. If you’re landing down the centre of a normal road and there’s oncoming traffic within 300+ metres after you land, there’s a very good chance you’ll hit it. If you’re landing with traffic and the drivers are reasonably switched on then it’ll be much easier for them to take avoiding action.
I fly mostly above roads that look like this:
Obviously any country will have roads that are unlandable, but it really seems to me that this is the norm rather than the exception round here.
I might consider landing on this one:
However, generally speaking I don’t think that landing on roads around my neck of the woods is a good idea.
Saw this on German news sites, a SEP landed on a main street in Spanway, WA, following a total engine failure. The prop seems to be wind milling. I must admit I did not recognize the type:
In Germany the main streets of most cities would never be wide or obstacle-free enough for such a maneuver, especially for low-wing aircraft.
It’s a Rand KR2 Aircraft Link ASN Link
VW conversions tend to do this in my experience… I was once behind one when it did so 
Silvaire wrote:
VW conversions tend to do this in my experience
You mean, they like to get back on a normal road ?
I know of one additional to that list of UK road landings. The pilot realised that the newly constructed road he’d chosen was not the strip he was looking for when the wing tip hit a lamp post!
Here is a funnier version of that video:
@0:57: “Knock knock, license and registration please”
stevelup wrote:
When I did my BFR in the US, we all but did a touch and go on a road – can’t have been more than a few metres above it
These guys managed to get the road closed for their fly-in, which looks to have been a really good time. The primarily landing surface is a dirt runway just off the road.
BTW, I find the entire ‘Tangoandjuliet’ video channel to be a breath of fresh air that shows flying the way it should be, for me at least. Their Pietenpol is for sale on Barnstormers right now for $15K.
Re my post immediately above, I had hoped to rendezvous with them but never got the opportunity. Tim mentioned by email that they were trading the Piet for a C140 for more baggage carrying practicality. One could conjecture about the cause of the accident but I won’t. Link. Nature is not kind sometimes.
They were regardless a genuine breath of fresh air. RIP.
