Comments on: Three problem airports

By: Tony Hunt

Tony Hunt — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 00:13:27 +0000

As you mentioned, several of the Canada – US road border crossings in BC, Alberta, Sask and Manitoba are equipped with an airstrip. They are registered strips, listed in both the CFS and AOPA Airport Guides and they are marked on the VFR Charts. You can land at most of them to clear into the US or back into Canada. The road border crossing is only metres away, so the agent will walk over.

These are some of the port-of-entry strips in the AOPA Airport Directory. Several are also listed in the CFS by their Canadian identifier while the US uses a different identifier:

CEQ4 Del Bonita is also known as H28 Whetstone Intl Montana
CEP4 Coutts Alta is also known as 7S8 Sweetgrass/Ross Intl Montana
CKK3 Coronach/Scobey Border Station Sask. is also known as 8U3 Scobey Montana
S28 Dunseith Intl Peace Garden Manitoba/N. Dakota – runway in N. Dakota, some of the taxiway & parking is in Canada
48Y Piney/Pinecreek Manitoba/Minnesota crosses perpendicular to the border (this one is paved and has self-serve fuel, I used it once with my BARON)

When I called the Sweetgrass Montana customs station in July 06, I asked if I could use the strip there, and the US Agent said I’d be welcome to, since it saves him the 2-hour drive into Great Falls Montana. He copied my particulars and then told me that as long as they had one hour notice of my arrival to “run me through the database”, I could arrive anytime before sunset.

Advantages:
GRASS STRIP! (most of them)
ETA less critical
Friendlier service (not guaranteed)

Disadvantages:
Grass strip? Can be wet/lumpy/soft and relatively short
Difficult to spot sometimes – not well marked, just cones in a narrow field running parallel to the border (see my photos)
No lighting (land/depart before sunset)

Always check the book and confirm by phone – one or two hours notice still required, no matter what!

I wrote some notes and included photos about my experience at Coutts Alberta / Sweetgrass Montana in July 06. See the RFC website message forums:
http://www.rfc.ca/ Rockcliffe Flying Club Forum aéroclub Rockcliffe » General Discussions » 2006 Western Trip

Good Blog!

By: Paul Tomblin

Paul Tomblin — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 20:12:55 +0000

I like the FIPS code idea better – you don’t have to care who claims the Spratly Islands if you just call the Spratly Islands their own country until it’s sorted out. Similarly they give a separate code to Taiwan without worrying if it’s a separate country or a renegade province of the PRC.

By: david

david — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 20:00:11 +0000

Thanks, Paul. DAFIF uses FIPS codes instead of ISO 3166-1 alpha2. ISO 3166 does have “PS” for the Palestinian Occupied Territories, and I have found that there is a convention of using the user-assigned code “ZZ” for “not assigned to a country” and “XS” for “international waters”. Maybe one of those would be useful. The problem is that people in Israel might not agree that the Jerusalem airport belongs to the Palestinian territories (note the two separate airport codes), and the various countries fighting over the oil reserves in the Paracel and Spratly Islands most definitely won’t agree that the islands lie in international waters. For now, I’m using “ZZ” for all three.

By: Paul Tomblin

Paul Tomblin — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:51:09 +0000

DAFIF gives separate country codes to Paracel Islands (PF, used only for VH84), Spratley Islands (PG, used onlhy for RP10). It only lists OJJR for Jerusalem, but gives it a country code of WE meaning West Bank, which is also used for an NDB and two reporting points.