The Results Are In!

Landing on a road is a dicey proposition as there are no guarantees that a power line isn’t going to bring your aircraft to a very abrupt stop. That being said, I would prefer an interstate highway or expressway over all other roads.

As far as landing direction goes, I would prefer to land with the traffic. Although it’s true that people won’t see you coming from behind it’s important to realize that at the time of touchdown you will be moving close to the speed of traffic, mitigating the danger involved in colliding with automobiles.

I would land with traffic and here is why. Imagine landing against traffic, as soon as you make your approach, drivers are going to freak out and of course brake and stop. This will lead to traffic backing up behind them and leaving you with landing on top of basically a full parking lot! When making the approach with traffic as soon as drivers see you low and coming in they will brake and stop leaving you with a much better chance of having at least some clear area in front of you in which to land. As far as choosing a road I’d say I’d look for width first and watch for overhead signs and overpasses like on interstates. of course wires could be across any road. I just hope it never happens!

I never thought about the airplane-induced traffic jam Mike. Great point. I’d rather land behind a car accelerating away than in front of a parked one!