B18 – Alton Bay, New Hampshire: the only ice runway in the lower 48 with an FAA identifier when the ice is thick enough.
The turbulence in the lee of the ridge was a bit rough. My passenger was a friend who is blind. I warned him that it “might be a bit of a hot landing.”
He braced himself and I promptly greased it. Really greased it. I mean a once-in-a-lifetime no-idea-the-plane-landed greaser. As we rolled out and the prop was windmilling, my passenger asked “Are we down?”
I confirmed we were. He relaxed. “Oh good. Last time I was told the landing might be hot, I was jumping out of a Huey in ‘Nam…”
Graeme J.W. Smith
