landing on a public road?

bavreze

bavreze

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bavareze
In the last issue of General Aviation news I found this article - see picture.

I always thought road landing is for emergency only.

Apparently this guy received the OK from officials to land on a public road.

Does anybody know more about the general rules governing this?

Thanks!
 

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In Texas I know a few guys who use the road in front of their houses for a runway. We used to land at friends' houses in the Panhandle a lot when I was a kid. Of course, we have a lot of long, straight, dirt roads out in the middle of nowhere!
 
RyanShort1 said:
And Texas in particular has a set of laws about doing that...

http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/TN/htm/TN.24.htm
Click to expand...
I was doing this way before 1995, but let's say we were following Sec.022 Luckily, according to (b)(2) we didn't have to stop at stop signs or follow the speed limit!

Sec. 24.022. USE OF AIRCRAFT ON COUNTY ROADS. (a) A commissioners court of a county may enact ordinances to ensure the safe use of county roads by aircraft. An ordinance may:

(1) limit the kinds of aircraft that may use the roads;

(2) establish the procedure that a pilot shall follow before using a road, including requiring the pilot to furnish persons with flags at both ends of the road to be used; or

(3) establish other requirements considered necessary for the safe use of the roads by aircraft.

(b) A pilot who follows the ordinances adopted under Subsection (a):

(1) may land or take off in the aircraft on a county road; and

(2) is not subject to the traffic laws of this state during the landing or takeoff.
 
Yeah, just trying to make it easy for people to find what they need to be aware of if they want to try it!
 
FAA doesn't care as long as it's not careless or reckless. Any restrictions come from state or local laws.
 
Huh, I'm surprised by this, but open to it. I guess it is kinda like whether your allowed to land on certain lakes, it's up to local and state government.
 
Ag folks used to operate off he paved county roads frequently. Do know if it was legal or not, but never heard of anyone having legal enforcement pursued. I used to land on dirty road by a friend's house in SW OK. Never asked and was never questioned for doing it.
 
There are no FARs requiring you to takeoff and land on a runway.
 
Its been done in Colorado. Small county dirt roads that are seldom used so the plane owner can get into and out of his rural property.
 
The article is talking about landing on back country service roads far from civilization but most places out west will not care in the slightest.
 
Back in the 1960's it was quite common in upstate New York. I had landed on a number of state, county and town roads,usually as part of a Civil Air patrol SaR mission.
After I got out of the Air Force, I was informed by a State Trooper to knock it off, it was illegal. I never bothered to find out if it was or not.
I should look it up and find out what NYS actually says about it. It would make visiting my grandkids much more fun. Their house is on 4 miles of perfectly flat and straight road in upstate New York. heh heh heh


Update #1:
It is illegal to land on the New York State Thruway unless you have prior permission and pay a $300.00 fee, which can be waived by the Transportation Commissioner.

So far, That's the only road I've found that is off limits, but I still have a lot of reading to do. More to follow.
 
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God Love Texas. And Alaska, where I hear it's perfectly legal. And, if I need a road to land on, I'm headed there. Most anywhere in the western part of the U.S.
 
I was on the takeoff roll in a fully loaded 602 on e day and a dude in a truck pulled out in front of me. He looked surprised as he dove for the ditch.
 
I imagine out in rural areas it's all perfectly fine until someone decides to complain.
 
I did plenty of road landings in Alaska. If the crosswind was too much, use the road going to the runway. I spent one summer flying clients to a fishing lodge that did not have a landing strip. I just used the road going to the lodge. But the road only went from the village to the lodge and was the only road for many miles.
 
Buddy of mine did an Alaska trip in his RV. He has a photo of some diner with his and two other planes that all decided to land on the road to eat at that particular diner. Totally legit, apparently. He stopped a few times to camp in the plane... Just landed and pulled off the side of the road.
 
I've landed on country roads quite a few times over the years & never has a problem or complaint.

Besides, if someone does come up & give you grief you can always pop open the cowling as say. "Well, I think I got that fixed" k then depart.
 
Somehow... I don't think Illinois is a state that allows this anywhere. At least not that I can find. Shame too because there's some great hidden golf courses off the beaten path in farm country of Illinois.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Lowflynjack said:
I was doing this way before 1995, but let's say we were following Sec.022 Luckily, according to (b)(2) we didn't have to stop at stop signs or follow the speed limit!

Sec. 24.022. USE OF AIRCRAFT ON COUNTY ROADS. (a) A commissioners court of a county may enact ordinances to ensure the safe use of county roads by aircraft. An ordinance may:

(1) limit the kinds of aircraft that may use the roads;

(2) establish the procedure that a pilot shall follow before using a road, including requiring the pilot to furnish persons with flags at both ends of the road to be used; or

(3) establish other requirements considered necessary for the safe use of the roads by aircraft.

(b) A pilot who follows the ordinances adopted under Subsection (a):

(1) may land or take off in the aircraft on a county road; and

(2) is not subject to the traffic laws of this state during the landing or takeoff.
Click to expand...


Wow...I had no idea this was a possible thing. I particularly like the last line here. It would though be kind of a keepsake to frame if you got a speeding ticket!

"Pull over!"

Cop sidles up to airplane.

"Sir, may I see your drivers license? Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"Um no, not sure...maybe...why officer?"

"I clocked you at 72 mph in a 50 zone, AND you we driving in the middle of the road, taking up both lanes. In addition, your tail light is out, and I think he flared too soon"
 
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Shepherd said:
Back in the 1960's it was quite common in upstate New York. I had landed on a number of state, county and town roads,usually as part of a Civil Air patrol SaR mission.
After I got out of the Air Force, I was informed by a State Trooper to knock it off, it was illegal. I never bothered to find out if it was or not.
I should look it up and find out what NYS actually says about it. It would make visiting my grandkids much more fun. Their house is on 4 miles of perfectly flat and straight road in upstate New York. heh heh heh


Update #1:
It is illegal to land on the New York State Thruway unless you have prior permission and pay a $300.00 fee, which can be waived by the Transportation Commissioner.

So far, That's the only road I've found that is off limits, but I still have a lot of reading to do. More to follow.
Click to expand...

Well if worse case it's a $300 fine, if you got 60 operations out before getting popped, that would just be the same price as doing take offs and landings a KFRG :dunno:

Thing is with NY, if it's fun it's likley illegal, if it embodies freedom it's very likely illegal. It's a beautiful state which has a lot to offer, but with all good things it's a give and take, and government wise this ain't your founding fathers state.

But yeah, if there's nothing written, and the worse you can find is a $300 ticket and the likley hood of getting popped is low, you deem it's safe, go for it.
 
If you do land on a little used public road, there is a good chance that it will become clogged with traffic as everyone wants to see the plane on the road.....

That happened to me near Mt Taylor. Doing fire patrol, the spotter with me needed to pee so I landed on the road and pulled into a scenic overview. And then every car and RV pulled up to see what was wrong. I had to send people out to block the road so we could take off. We never got a chance to pee.....
 
LongRoadBob said:
Wow...I had no idea this was a possible thing. I particularly like the last line here. It would though be kind of a keepsake to frame if you got a speeding ticket!

"Pull over!"

Cop sidles up to airplane.

"Sir, may I see your drivers license? Do you know why I pulled you over?"

"Um no, not sure...maybe...why officer?"

"I clocked you at 72 mph in a 50 zone, AND you we driving in the middle of the road, taking up both lanes. In addition, your tail light is out, and I think he flared too soon"
Click to expand...

Reminds me of an article I once read, probably in Soaring Magazine. A 14 year old decided to fly a cross country flight in his dad’s glider. He had been soloed in the glider and had his CFI’s approval. So he headed out on the cross country with his dad following with the glider trailer to pick him and the glider up when they landed.

When he got low near a small town airport he announced he was going land on the taxiway. At which point the Unicom came on the radio and announced that he must land on the runway. He made a great command decision and told them he was a glider and already committed to the taxiway and proceeded to land.

As he rolled to a stop the Sheriff’s car came racing out with it lights on. Turns out the Unicom/FBO was co-located with the Sheriff’s office. The Sheriff come up to the pilot and asks to see his driver’s license. The pilot responded that he wasn’t old enough to have a driver license but would be happy to show the Sheriff his Pilot Certificate.
 
Zeldman said:
If you do land on a little used public road, there is a good chance that it will become clogged with traffic as everyone wants to see the plane on the road.....

That happened to me near Mt Taylor. Doing fire patrol, the spotter with me needed to pee so I landed on the road and pulled into a scenic overview. And then every car and RV pulled up to see what was wrong. I had to send people out to block the road so we could take off. We never got a chance to pee.....
Click to expand...

I once landed my glider in a field right beside the highway. At the corner of the field was a convenience store. So I let my crew, who was flying another glider, know I was down ok and would wait for them to come get me.

So walked over to the convenience store and bought a sandwich and a pop and went back to the airplane and sat down under the wing to eat my sandwich. Every few minutes someone would stop and ask if I was ok or needed anything.

After about 30 minutes a Green Chevy pickup rolled up with the Gumball flashing in the windshield. An Officer got out and asked “Are you the Pilot”, “Is any one hurt”. At that point he stepped back to his pickup and called on the Radio “You can cancel the Fire Truck and Ambulance”. He explained someone had called 911 and said an ultralight had crashed in a field.

We talked for a couple minutes as I explained I was just eating my sandwich, and waiting for my crew to arrive. While it had been an unplanned/forced landing, as I would have preferred to land at the airport, the landing itself was perfectly normal. I told him I could help since the wings come off the glider, I could remove them and lay them out in around the airplane and make it looked more like a crash site.

Then the Firetruck and the Ambulance showed up, since they had almost been there when the call was cancelled, they wanted to see what was going on, even if they weren’t needed. So I got to explain to them again that I was just eating a sandwich while waiting for my crew. After talking about gliders and soaring for a bit, they left and I finished my sandwich just about the time my crew arrived.

While I have landed in fields a number of times since then I haven’t landed near a major highway, however next time I do I will probably call 911 and let them know I am there and I don’t need emergency assistance, since every 3rd person with a cell phone will probably be calling in a plane crash.

Brian

CFIIG/ASEL
 
On our trip to Alaska in 2007 we had to wait in the aircraft line to get fuel. I forgot if that was in B.C. Yukon, Tr, or Alaska. they finally found we were diesel, and moved so we could get to the diesel pump.
 
USAF-LT-G said:
Somehow... I don't think Illinois is a state that allows this anywhere. At least not that I can find. Shame too because there's some great hidden golf courses off the beaten path in farm country of Illinois. [...]
Click to expand...

Are you saying there is no law concerning landing on public roads? Wouldn't this automatically make it legal?

I was told that one of the greatest differences between the US and Germany would be that in the US you can do whatever your want, unless it is specifically prohibited. In Germany (and many other countries) it's the other way around... :cool:
 
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