Bush Pilot

Fairbanks pilots get practice runways

Alaskan pilots in Fairbanks now have an ideal place to practice their shorter-field takeoffs and landings -- similar to the ones they might find out in the Bush. According to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (via ctpost.com), the Fairbanks International Airport now features two 600-foot-long and 25-foot-wide gravel runways intended to allow pilots to practice short landings similar to what they might encounter in an off-airport situation. An off-airport landing is just what it sounds like: a landing in an area not typically designated as a standard landing strip. In Alaska, this includes everything from gravel bars in shallow rivers to plateaus atop high mountains. Additionally, the article says that the length and width of the practice runways can be typical of even actual runways in some of Alaska's rural villages. The runways feature stripes of paint marking the landing and takeoff areas within the larger landing surface, which allow pilots to observe places where they may have touched the paint, representing a point where they may have veered off a runway in another location that actually features the practice fields' dimensions. The article says that numerous Alaska aviation organizations -- including the AOPA and the female pilots' organization the Ninety-Nines -- along with the FAA, have spearheaded the project, which has garnered high praise from the aviation community. A similar runway exists in Palmer, and the paint technique has previously been used in Unalakleet and Fort Yukon. Read more, at ctpost.com.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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