Lake Hood Seaplane Base

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Lake Hood Seaplane Base
FAA Alaska airport diagram
IATA: none – ICAO: PALH – FAA: LHD
Summary
Airport type		Public
Owner		State of Alaska DOT&PF - Central Region
Location		Anchorage, Alaska
Elevation AMSL		71 ft / 22 m
Coordinates		61°10′48″N 149°58′19″W / 61.18, -149.97194
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
E/W	4,540	1,384	Water
N/S	1,930	588	Water
NW/SE	1,370	418	Water
Statistics (2005)
Aircraft operations			69,400
Based aircraft			781
Source: Federal Aviation Administration^[1]

Lake Hood Seaplane Base (ICAO: PALH, FAA LID: LHD) is an aircraft and seaplane base located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska.^[1] A gravel runway located adjacent to the seaplane base is known as Lake Hood Airstrip (FAA LID: Z41)

Operating continuously and open to the public, Lake Hood is the world's busiest seaplane base, handling an average of 190 flights per day. It is located on Lakes Hood and Spenard, next to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, three miles from downtown Anchorage.

Although most U.S. airports use the same three-letter location identifier for the FAA and IATA, Lake Hood Seaplane Base is assigned LHD by the FAA but has no designation from the IATA.^[2] The airport's ICAO identifier is PALH^[3].

[edit] Facilities and aircraft

Lake Hood Seaplane Base has three seaplane landing areas:^[1]

Runway E/W: 4,540 x 188 ft. (1,384 x 57 m), Surface: Water
Runway N/S: 1,930 x 200 ft. (588 x 61 m), Surface: Water
Runway NW/SE: 1,370 x 150 ft. (418 x 46 m), Surface: Water

Lake Hood Airstrip has one runway:^[4]

Runway 13/31: 2,200 x 75 ft. (671 x 23 m), Surface: Gravel

For 12-month period ending August 1, 2005, the seaplane base had 69,400 aircraft operations, an average of 190 per day: 88% general aviation, 12% air taxi and <1% military. There are 781 aircraft based at this seaplane base: 97% single engine and 3% multi-engine.^[1]