Pilot Paul Russo on the ice at the Alton Bay Seaplane Base and Ice Runway. Courtesy photo/Aviation Museum of New Hampshire

LONDONDERRY — Pilot Paul Russo is an expert on a really cool subject, having landed at the Ice Runway at Alton Bay more than 100 times since 2005.

Located at the southern end of Lake Winnipesaukee, the four-mile cove is a landing strip that opens only when the ice is 12 inches thick. In practice, that means only for a few weeks each year, often in the dead of winter and after a prolonged cold spell. It’s the only ice landing strip in the Lower 48 states to be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

With the 2026 season fast approaching, Russo, a Concord-based pilot, will speak about his Alton Bay Ice Runway experiences and winter flying on Jan. 15, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Aviation Museum of New Hampshire, 27 Navigator Rd. in Londonderry.

The presentation, part of the museum’s Exploring Aviation lecture series, is open to the public. Admission is $10 per person and museum members will be admitted free of charge.

Russo, a general aviation pilot for more than 20 years, specializes in flying tailwheel aircraft and competition aerobatics. He’s amassed nearly 3,000 flight hours, many of them “upside down,” he notes jokingly on his resume.

Alton Bay Seaplane Base and Ice Runway (B18) is located in Belknap County and acts as a seaplane base in warmer weather.

The single north-south runway is 2,600 feet long, giving pilots enough room to stop on the friction-free surface. It’s 100 feet wide and there’s a taxiway and a large parking area for planes. All are kept clear by snowplows while the ice runway is open.

For safety reasons, the ice runway must cease operations each year by March 15.

Some years are too warm for the ice runway to open at all, but the 2025 season set new landing records, with pilots flying in from as far as San Antonio and Atlanta to cross this goal off their aviation bucket list.

At Alton Bay, activities are managed out of a bob shack, a portable shelter used for ice fishing, where incoming pilots are handed hot chocolate and their coveted “ice chip” tokens that pilots receive with a certificate for landing on the runway.

Russo is an active member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association and Chapter 35 of the International Aerobatic Club. He has competed in aerobatic contests for two decades and accrued time in many different aircraft, from Cessnas to a North American AT-6 warbird.

For more information, visit www.aviationmuseumofnh.org or call 603-669-4820 ext. 401 or email jrapsis@nhahs.org.