Strangest thing you've ever seen on a runway?

Fearless Tower

Fearless Tower

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jan 1, 2010
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Norfolk, VA
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Fearless Tower
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Mine happened yesterday - Turtle Incursion!

Landed at Chesapeake (CPK) and while rolling out discovered a decent size turtle on the centerline attempting to cross the runway midfield.

I've seen snakes, stubborn birds and coyotes, but this was a new one.

Any other interesting offenders I should be on the lookout for?
 
I was doing ultra light short field work on a grass strip with tall grass. After several T&G's I notice 3 black objects in the middle of the runway. I landed short and 3 kids got up off the field and ran off. They were laying down. All I could see was their heads.

Turtles are a first. :yes:
 
Copperhill, TN.

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NOT Photoshopped!
 
On my PP checkride the DPE said that there was an elephant on the runway, so I did go-around. I never did see that elephant, but I trusted my examiner. ;)
 
I've had an bald eagle fly up off the end of a runway and miss taking me out by a few feet. Sand hill Cranes, Deer,Coyotes and Turkeys.
My wife on the other hand was flying into a strip in Africa and had an Elephant cross the field then looked and saw a couple of Ostrich standing by the windsock.
After the Elephant encounter she wasn't near as concerned about the deer here at home anymore:).
 
yes, snakes/turtles/coyotes/antelope/deer and drunk people (Gastons)!
 
I had a deer race me down the runway one evening, just as the sun set.

I just clipped an armadillo with my right wheel pant, years ago, in an ultralight, and found a perfectly good, and operating cell phone in the middle of the runway back when i was transitioning from ultralights to GA, with my CFI sitting beside me, and it turned out to be his.
 
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I found an Exacto knife (with a decent blade) in the intersection of the two runways at what is now VLL. (The diagonal runway no longer exists) I thought it was a strange thing to be in the middle of a runway.
 
the centerline? hiyoooooooo. oh, you said 'strangest', not rarest. yeah, other than the airport mgr riding his lawnmower across the runway, I got no interesting stories here.
 
From daily runway checks, all kinds of airplane parts, mostly screws and inspection plates, etc but including a motor mount. The motor mount was from a homebuilt auto-gyro. Also, a mud bug with an attitude at the edge of the runway. He was reared up on his tail waving his claws and ready to do battle. Two sleeping coyote pups on the centerline, various sticks and pieces of geo-cloth drug up by coyotes.
 
Geese that refuse to move,for aircraft.
 
Alligator at Jeckle island in GA jes chillin.
 
A UAV terminal area operator sunning himself in a lawn chair. :eek:

Nauga,
and the 25m sprint with yard art
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
I found an Exacto knife (with a decent blade) in the intersection of the two runways at what is now VLL. (The diagonal runway no longer exists) I thought it was a strange thing to be in the middle of a runway.
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That must have been quite a while ago. VLL (then 7D2) hasn't had a diagonal runway at least since I started flying in late 2001.
 
azure said:
That must have been quite a while ago. VLL (then 7D2) hasn't had a diagonal runway at least since I started flying in late 2001.
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It shows on a topo map from the seventies. I can't recall it being there since the eighties.
 
frfly172 said:
Geese that refuse to move,for aircraft.
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I have had to taxi out onto the runway at midfield, roll right up to a flock of hundreds of them, and gun the engine just to get them to slowly waddle off to the side.

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Oh, and by the time one taxis back to one's hangar, one's tires are covered with a green goo.

:mad:

We're hoping this young lady will acquire a healthy taste for goose ...

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Turtles at the approach end of 17 @ DXR (Danbury ct.) were there so long they made the ATIS recording, along w/ the normal "birds + wildlife in vicinity"... TWR would also get turtle position reports and pass on to those landing.

Also didn't believe the story's until I saw it with my own eyes; a Mooney taxiing into position (after a long taxi from his FBO!) WITH a tiedown still attached to the right wing.

A 2' x 2' x 2' freaking concrete Block tiedown.
 
At FTY we have turkeys, coyotes, deer and an occasional goose. :D Actually had a 414 hit a deer a couple years ago, not good for the deer or the prop and flap on the 414! :eek:
 
This was an actual NOTAM I saw just a few weeks ago:

!MMV 05/043 S48 AD COW NEAR MOVEMENT AREAS 1505121459-1505191452EST​

There is a wildlife refuge a dozen or so miles north of our airport, and pilots are requested to stay 2,000' AGL above it so as to not ruffle the feathers. So where do the waterfowl like to hang out?

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This blue heron must be so addled with PTSD from light airplanes flying around his nest, that all he likes to do is stand next to the runup area at KVUO.
 
nddons said:
On my PP checkride the DPE said that there was an elephant on the runway, so I did go-around. I never did see that elephant, but I trusted my examiner. ;)
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My examiner told me a baby was on the runway! :eek:
 
azure said:
That must have been quite a while ago. VLL (then 7D2) hasn't had a diagonal runway at least since I started flying in late 2001.
Click to expand...
1970's. The diagonal runway went away sometime around 1980 or so. Hangars / FBO / tiedowns also used to be on the north side along 15 mile road.
 
A tail hook when one of Nauga's buddies decided to take the cable and have it ripped out the back end! I remember looking at it with binos lying on the runway thinking, talk about a FOD hazard. :D
 
OK, just looking at that eyesore, how can full power on both engines for the takeoff roll not involve flipping over? The vertical engine looks WAY behind the CG, and the horizontal well above it.
 
Years ago as I was taking the runway in Groton, CT, I caught some movement off to my left. I looked around to see that the seagulls where dropping oysters on the runway to smash them open.
 
Cane toads, millions of cane toads. Sounded like popping blister wrap on landing and take off.
 
Herd of elk on the runway, Astoria OR (KAST). A couple of years later a Lear 36 hit one on a night takeoff roll. No occupants hurt, but the airplane was destroyed in the ensuing fire.

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And if you fly out of Gisborne, New Zealand, you have this to contend with:

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In Flagstaff one evening, just past civil sunset, I was taxiing out and saw something on the taxi way. It was a porcupine following the yellow line like a path.

I was taxiing really slow, with occasional stops. Ground control asked me if I had a problem. I just replied that a porkie was on the yellow line and I will give him the right of way. He just laughed.

In Alaska I have seen it all. But the strangest was a house. Really. Seems the state was moving a house from one side of town to the other and was using the road that crosses the runway. When I call flight service for advisories, he informed me there was a house crossing the runway but was currently stopped. He didn't know their intentions. I asked if he was in radio contact with the house. He said yes, but didn't know why they had stopped.


Then the house (movers) responded that a chain had come loose and they were re-attaching it, and were just about to start up again.

I couple of S turns and a 360 gave them enough time to move off the runway and I landed.

Normal day in the bush....
 
Savannah-Hilton Head Airport has two gravestones in one of their runways!
 
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