It opens in late January for the land aircrafts, when its been cold for good two months, and the ice is thick enough. Its best to call and ask about the runway conditions before taking off. Its a bit difficult to find a day when all the factors work out to land safely at the base.
Light cross wind, and a good clear VFR day is preferred.
On Jan 25, 2014, things worked out just right for Zain and me to get to land on the frozen Alton Bay Seaplan Base (B18). We made a straight in approach from KLCI (North-West) side for runway 19. The wind was light right down the runway. A very helpful person on the CTAF (probably the restaurant owner) infromed us about the traffic situation, runway conditions, and wind.
We came in slower than usual with full flaps deployed a bit earlier, to slow us down to 60 knots. The tree line from 19 side is pretty low and it gave us enough separation to touch down in the first few hundred feet of the runway. Needed a few throttle adjustments to maintain the airspeed.
After the touchdown, I kept the feet off the brakes so that the plane comes to rest on its own, which it did with several hundred feet of runway to spare. I was told not to apply the brakes, and I did not. The Cessna's "un-aerodynamic" frame acts as the brakes.
We walked to a local Chinese Restaurant in Alton Bay, ate some food, and headed back.
Do not skip the runup on the way back thinking that the aircraft will move at 1800 rpm (runup RPM). It wont, or at least it did not for me.
On the way back, I did 3 instrument approaches and some holds to maintain the IFR currency.
What a day! Here are some pictures, and a video of the landing in the end.
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