KFXE Closed

[Piloto]

Coming into KFXE today I found that the airport was closed 15 minutes prior to my arrival. I landed at KPMP and waited for three hours for KFXE to open together with 11 planes bound to KFXE. My first thought was that Trump landed at KFXE. At KPMP they told me a King Air just crashed blocking RWY 9 and 13. This is not my first time and I was lucky to have an alternate were to land. But what would have been my options if this would have happened at Bermuda or Narsarsuaq. Were this is most dangerous is when it happens at night at an uncontrolled field. I always overfly the runway with the landing light on looking for animals or objects on the runway before landing.

José

[FloridaMan]

The good news is that now when Trump is in town you at least have an option. You can first land at a gateway airport, such as FLL or MCO, go through TSA screening. If you land at PBI, I believe you can depart from PBI if you go through TSA screening as well. 

Edited March 3, 2017 by Antares

[Mooneymite]

1 hour ago, Piloto said:

But what would have been my options if this would have happened at Bermuda or Narsarsuaq.

Bermuda is a toughee since there are no alternates within about 500 miles.  Supposing you arrive and find a B-767 disabled on the only runway, it might be of interest to know there used to be three runways, but two of them became taxiways.  I suspect a Mooney could easily land on "taxiway" B should a fuel emergency be declared.

[Southernpilot]

It's all about the planning you put into a trip and having a plan B, maybe even a plan C. I used to fly a Hawker 800 to Bermuda regularly and we began the trip in Houston. We stopped on the East Coast for fuel just for this very reason of finding a closed runway. One passenger grumbled until we explained the lack of options.


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[glafaille]

In a situation such as Bermuda they usually allow landings on taxiways and sometimes closed runways at the pilots option.

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, glafaille said:

In a situation such as Bermuda they usually allow landings on taxiways and sometimes closed runways at the pilots option.

Harrison Ford would do just fine there . .  just kidding.

[GaryP1007]

Hahahahaha.


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[Mooneymite]

This is a great thread because too many times I only consider the weather when considering an alternate requirement and planning fuel.

There are a lot of other circumstances which can shut your destination down and force you to look for a gas station.  A pop-up TFR might close down an entire area making my fuel insufficient for any available alternate and pushing me into a fuel emergency.

[markejackson02]

You never know.  Flying from Beaumont to Houston Sugar Land a few years ago.  A Cherokee hit the power lines south of the runway at SGR, blew out all the power at the airport.  Had to land at HOU and sit for three hours until they opened SGR again.