Private Airstrip Zoning

[Bill Boyd]

It's basically tamped-down layers of money on top of more layers of money. And labor.

I mow probably 5-10 hours for every hour of flight time I log off my backyard turf strip. You have to love mowing, or else you should do like Mel and pave over it with hundred dollar bills in the form of asphalt.

Livin' the dream...

Approach end



Departure end

 

[gmcjetpilot]

It's basically tamped-down layers of money on top of more layers of money. And labor.

I mow probably 5-10 hours for every hour of flight time I log off my backyard turf strip. You have to love mowing, or else you should do like Mel and pave over it with hundred dollar bills in the form of asphalt.

Livin' the dream...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.... Wisdom can be funny That is too funny Bill. Nice strip BTW. Have you thought of goats and cows?

I can tell 2nd hand story of a guy who set up his own grass strip, built his big house with a barn for his wife's horse's, got it zoned, even had plans to sell of lots along one side of strip with runway access. He was a senior Captain and had lots of money. He was flying off the strip for awhile with his Baron. Well then neighbors got involved. They said drugs were being flown off the strip etc... Wild lies, but whatever. He now has his house and strip he can use, but he is the only one who can use it. I think he was able to sell off some land but access to strip was cut off. I wanted to buy a lot on this strip, build hanger and house.

USA use to be littered with small strips all over the country 1930's until 1980's. Most of them are gone. As land gets more valuable, the founders pass on, strip gets sold and become condos or industrial park. Sad. One of my favorites was Martha Lake Airport Park S13 in Washington State. Another is Merrill C. Meigs Field KCGX was unilaterally closed by the "brain trust" of Chicago. It was probably one of the best known GA fields in the country. The public doesn't realize how valuable GA is, a bonus to community.

Martha Lake Airport Park S13 - I had my plane at S13 in the mid late 80's. It was less than 1 miles as the crow flies from my house, 2.5 mile driving. The airport community was a small tight knit group. It was a fairly short runway with some obstacles (although they topped the trees and made a clearway), but 1700 x 50 hard surface is not an issue. The builders (circa late 1950's) and owners (Ed and Dorothy Hunter) made this strip virtually by hand their selves, and they built it up over their life. Ed passed in the 70's from a car accident. Dorthey was determined to keep the airport going after Ed's death, and she did. I use to knock on her door, to bring my T-hanger rent check. She lived on the airport in a house with wrap around windows with view of runway. She passed in 1998. I had already moved away at that time. The heirs (kids) did run it for a short time, but sold the property to the country for $3.6M for 30 acers. Good part it was not sold to developers and is mostly a park now. To give you an idea of the change in this area and Settle area in general, the house I owned nearby, I bought for $74K (1800' ranch), 2 car garage, regular subdivision lot. My wife and I sold it 7 years later for $124K about 1994. I checked Zillow awhile back? It is valued at $600K. WHAT THE... House is still the same. Google built a HQ high-tech campus to crush free speech (ha ha kidding). So you have kids getting out of school who can code making $90K. The great part of WA State is GREAT FLYING in and around Olympics, Cascades, San Juan Islands, where there still are small strips that allow you to walk into town for lunch at the harbor. If you have not flown the West Coast plan on going to NW WA State, the best months are July thru Sept., low rain chance and perfect temps between 56 and 75.
http://www.airfields-freeman.com/WA/Airfields_WA_Seattle.htm#martha

Another home grown airport nearby I believe is still in operation is Harvey Field, Snohomish - S43.... I also had my plane there when I got a twin. Similar story of family (The Harvey's) starting airport. It has maintenance fixed and rotary, training, fuel, restaurant and skydiving Ops. There are wires on final so watch for those. They did massive airport upgrade from Google, so they may have buried the wires on the south end but apparently the North End still has power lines. When landing to the North it was cross the orange balls and chop the power and dive for runway. There was no VASI at the time I recall due to obstacles. I use to point out to my students NOT to fly into strange airports at night, unless they had a VASI. I don't land at strange airports without some approach guidance VASI or ILS. The AFD should list wires, but a moonless night approach is basically an instrument approach.
http://harveyfield.com/History.aspx
http://harveyfield.com/Gallery.aspx


Rant Switch off, Stepping off Soap Box....

http://www.airfields-freeman.com/WA/MarthaLake_WA_70s_Caddy.jpg

 

[Bill Boyd]

Part of the "layers of money" that my airstrip is paved with is roughly $8k in 1999 dollars to make the power and phone lines at the approach end disappear underground, 400' between utility poles. It adds up, but what price safety? No wires there preserves about 500' of useful length that would otherwise get shaved to about 1600' useable.

 

[Kyle Boatright]

Part of the "layers of money" that my airstrip is paved with is roughly $8k in 1999 dollars to make the power and phone lines at the approach end disappear underground, 400' between utility poles. It adds up, but what price safety? No wires there preserves about 500' of useful length that would otherwise get shaved to about 1600' useable.

In the scope of things $8K ain't bad. The time factor (the mowing you mentioned) is overwhelming. What mower do you have and how many AMU's would it take to get a mower that does the job several times faster?

 

[crabandy]

We didn’t start out looking to build a grass strip, it was too much money and too much maintenance. My wife has sacrificed for years while building the airplane, it’s about time she gets to work on some of her dreams too.

We’ve been saving for several years to add a small addition to house all our kiddos and hopefully build a workshop for myself. After planning and saving a couple more years we started looking at contractors and quotes, the numbers didn’t add up to do the addition at all.

That’s when we started looking at houses, there were some nice places but never anything close to check the boxes we wanted. That’s when we add land to our list of houses to look at.

We were looking for land strictly to build on, just missed out on several properties we were interested in. Once a Month or when we found a couple interesting places we would do a date afternoon and drive by several properties.

We did a drive by of the property we bought, turned around and did a couple more. It checked a almost every box:
-closer to both kids schools
-closer to wife’s work, marginally further to my work
-on pavement
-closer to grocery store (kids eat a LOT)
-out of town and surrounding properties

The wife wanted it first, sitting there looking at it we penciled in another box.
-Runway, 1/2 mile and flat doesn’t get much better for a runway.

We bought it and went to work on house plans, or Thanks to Ron as he’s the one who really went to work on our house plans. Walked the property with a recommended dirt dude, turns out the runway idea wasn’t that far fetched. Talking with local strips and doing a little research the next step was zoning.

The counties closer into KC will not permit any new private runways, selling land or access to the runway voids the original zoning. I know of several existing strips that are limited to names or operations and have to renew their permits every couple years. Our zoning application is what started this thread, thankfully we were able to amend the initial restrictions the county had proposed.

Can’t build a house in the middle of a field without a decent driveway, also can’t build a driveway or a runway without affecting water and drainage for everything. Makes sense to do all of this at once.

I honestly think the best part of living on an airstrip will be having the airplane in the backyard to work on, 2nd will be being already home every time I land. So many hour work sessions you can’t get in when the airplane is 20 minutes away. I remember the wife crying when I was moving the RV to the airport, she was gonna miss the closeness of me being in the garage all the time. The RV has also allowed me to visit lots of private strips and taste the experience, yes it’s a lot of work and money but so is building an airplane. I know building the airplane is totally worth it, I hope the airstrip is too.

 

[crabandy]

Part of the "layers of money" that my airstrip is paved with is roughly $8k in 1999 dollars to make the power and phone lines at the approach end disappear underground, 400' between utility poles. It adds up, but what price safety? No wires there preserves about 500' of useful length that would otherwise get shaved to about 1600' useable.

I haven’t received the initial quote to bury the power lines yet, now that the runway/driveway/house/hangar locations are solidified it’s my next project. I will not be surprised if it costs more to bury the powerlines than the runway itself. I’ve been told initial construction is the time to do this, trying to make it happen after structures are already there gets more expensive.

My current hangar rent is relatively inexpensive, but 20 years of my hangar rent should easily pay for the runway and probably the hangar door. The rest of it is Like most things in aviation it’s better not to put a price on it. I keep dreaming of insulation, good lighting and more than 1-25amp circuit.

 

[868RM]

backyard strip

Andy, There is one cost that no one has mentioned, additional fuel and airplane maintenance costs. You will be flying a LOT more with the plane in your back yard.
The progress looks great ! Merry Christmas

 

[Bill Boyd]

I've been mowing with a 60" Gravely Pro Turn, takes 6 laps down and back, about 90 minutes per mowing.

Now I have found that the new finish mower towed behind the Kubota is faster and more fun to drive plus it actually gives a better cut. Gravely is now just for the yard; diesel tractor makes short(er) work of the strip and around the hangar.

Another advantage: on the tractor the leaf hoppers don't get all over you in the hot/dry season - hard to believe it but those things actually bite - and itch! I used to think they were herbivores. They are at the least opportunistic carnivores.

 

[crabandy]

Andy, There is one cost that no one has mentioned, additional fuel and airplane maintenance costs. You will be flying a LOT more with the plane in your back yard.
The progress looks great ! Merry Christmas

Ron,
At $.56/mile driving to the hangar and back maybe I’ll break even, Not to mention multiple flights weekly will surely extend my TBO. Either way this still falls into the category of costs I’ld rather not keep track of.
Merry Christmas to you and Kathy!

 

[crabandy]

I've been mowing with a 60" Gravely Pro Turn, takes 6 laps down and back, about 90 minutes per mowing.

Now I have found that the new finish mower towed behind the Kubota is faster and more fun to drive plus it actually gives a better cut. Gravely is now just for the yard; diesel tractor makes short(er) work of the strip and around the hangar.

Another advantage: on the tractor the leaf hoppers don't get all over you in the hot/dry season - hard to believe it but those things actually bite - and itch! I used to think they were herbivores. They are at the least opportunistic carnivores.

Bill,
Curious what grass you used and your yearly rainfall?

 

[PaulvS]

Grass strip maintenance

This farm strip grass strip is in the other hemisphere, about 34 degrees south of the equator, but I assume the principles are the same. Size is 650m by 15m (2100' x 50') and it is covered with kikuyu grown from seed. Mowing takes about an hour with the JD 60" zero turn diesel ride on mower. We get our rain mainly in winter but the strip is generally good all year round, unless there is extended heavy rain when it can get saturated.
Another thing to consider once a strip is established is rolling it occasionally to make it smoother. I also fertilize it with pasture mix a couple of times per year, using a tow behind spreader.

 

[Bill Boyd]

Kentucky bluegrass, although sitting in the middle of a hayfield there is considerable mingling of species that occurs over the years so there's orchard grass and Timothy, plantain and dandelions all over the place.

I roll it occasionally but it's firm enough not to have much effect; the best benefit from grooming efforts was raking in a few tons of green sand last year in the roughest parts using a land plane. I have more of that to do, so that the inspections on the -10 gear mounts continue not to show cracks. Freeze-thaw and moles can introduce considerable roughness otherwise.
https://www.landpride.com/products/82/gs15-series-grading-scrapers

 

[gmcjetpilot]

Kentucky bluegrass, although sitting in the middle of a hayfield there is considerable mingling of species that occurs over the years so there's orchard grass and Timothy, plantain and dandelions all over the place.

I roll it occasionally but it's firm enough not to have much effect; the best benefit from grooming efforts was raking in a few tons of green sand last year in the roughest parts using a land plane. I have more of that to do, so that the inspections on the -10 gear mounts continue not to show cracks. Freeze-thaw and moles can introduce considerable roughness otherwise.
https://www.landpride.com/products/82/gs15-series-grading-scrapers

I am maxed out trying to keep 5000 sq ft of lawn (cool season Fescue a cousin of KBG). I get frost heaves, weeds, animals digging.... I can't imagine how much a runway takes. Well I can imagine. Hats off to you Sir...

This farm strip grass strip is in the other hemisphere, about 34 degrees south of the equator, but I assume the principles are the same. Size is 650m by 15m (2100' x 50') and it is covered with kikuyu grown from seed. Mowing takes about an hour with the JD 60" zero turn diesel ride on mower. We get our rain mainly in winter but the strip is generally good all year round, unless there is extended heavy rain when it can get saturated.
Another thing to consider once a strip is established is rolling it occasionally to make it smoother. I also fertilize it with pasture mix a couple of times per year, using a tow behind spreader.

Nothing nicer than landing on a well groomed smooth grass strip... it's heaven. Nice work.

Never heard of Kikuyu. In USA it is listed as a Federal Noxious Weed, due to invasive nature. Reading about this cultivar kikuyu is popular in Australia, and it has great qualities including a beautiful green color. Kikuyu is produced and available in USA in a few locations I found out, and some golf courses in California use it.

Zoysia like Kikuyu is a warm season grass. Zoysia is the current darling or popular cultivar in USA for Warm Season grasses (grown in lower half of USA). It is very expensive seed. Most people put down Sod which is also crazy expensive, say 0.50 sq ft. So a 1500 x 40 strip (60,000 sq ft) would cost $30,000 in SOD!!! Of couse you will likely till, and plant seed. That takes A LOT of water and baby sitting, but it will be cheaper. However seed is not free. Zoysia being about $6000 for above small strip, one of the more expensive seeds. Also warm season grass takes at least a month to germinate and grows slow, takes a few years to really establish. However it will be lower maintenance, less water and cutting.

Cool Season grasses like Kentucky Bluegrass, Kentucky 31, Fescue tall and fine, ryegrass are popular in upper half if USA. I have a lawn of tall Fescue.... it looks great, but it would kill me to maintain a 200,000 sq ft. much less the 5,000 sq ft I have. It takes water, cutting and like all grasses subject to weeds, disease and insects. I buy chemicals to prevent weeds, disease and insect infestation, plus fertilizers and nutrients. It is very expensive, just for 5,000 ft. to keep it top shape. Down side of cool season is it does not self repair like warm seasons which have runners, stolon's and root system that spreads. To repair cool season you have to over seed occasionally to repair any damage.

I have respect for greens masters who maintain nice golf courses.

Warm season grasses like Bermuda, St. Aug, Zoysia, and Kikuyu are easier to care for and use less water. However they don't tolerate cold well and will brown out and go hibernation. If too cold too long it will kill it. On the other end cool season if subject to brutal high temps (over 90) and insufficient water (at least 1.5" / wk) for extended period, it will die off.

 

[crabandy]

Been a while………
Another round of dozer/scraper/grader followed by disc that finished end of May.
Hit it with a field finisher just before Christmas, 7-8 passes with a Harrow today.
Need a little rain to crust things over and hopefully Buffalo grass going in in a couple weeks.

 

[crabandy]

New Tool acquired, took a couple hours driving in 4LO to get home at 10mph.

A fellow Aviator passed away and family getting rid of stuff. Don’t think he ever built an airplane but if he did it woulda been plans. I really like how this thing was built, scraps and pieces put together taking more time than money to make a well thought out and functional roller. Heavy built and pulls very well, can’t wait to use it!

 

[Reflex]

Andy,

I flew over yesterday, looks like it's coming along nicely. Buffalo grass is a nice call, should cut down on maintenance and mowing significantly.

 

[Tag]

We didn’t start out looking to build a grass strip, it was too much money and too much maintenance. My wife has sacrificed for years while building the airplane, it’s about time she gets to work on some of her dreams too.

We’ve been saving for several years to add a small addition to house all our kiddos and hopefully build a workshop for myself. After planning and saving a couple more years we started looking at contractors and quotes, the numbers didn’t add up to do the addition at all.

That’s when we started looking at houses, there were some nice places but never anything close to check the boxes we wanted. That’s when we add land to our list of houses to look at.

We were looking for land strictly to build on, just missed out on several properties we were interested in. Once a Month or when we found a couple interesting places we would do a date afternoon and drive by several properties.

We did a drive by of the property we bought, turned around and did a couple more. It checked a almost every box:
-closer to both kids schools
-closer to wife’s work, marginally further to my work
-on pavement
-closer to grocery store (kids eat a LOT)
-out of town and surrounding properties

The wife wanted it first, sitting there looking at it we penciled in another box.
-Runway, 1/2 mile and flat doesn’t get much better for a runway.

We bought it and went to work on house plans, or Thanks to Ron as he’s the one who really went to work on our house plans. Walked the property with a recommended dirt dude, turns out the runway idea wasn’t that far fetched. Talking with local strips and doing a little research the next step was zoning.

The counties closer into KC will not permit any new private runways, selling land or access to the runway voids the original zoning. I know of several existing strips that are limited to names or operations and have to renew their permits every couple years. Our zoning application is what started this thread, thankfully we were able to amend the initial restrictions the county had proposed.

Can’t build a house in the middle of a field without a decent driveway, also can’t build a driveway or a runway without affecting water and drainage for everything. Makes sense to do all of this at once.

I honestly think the best part of living on an airstrip will be having the airplane in the backyard to work on, 2nd will be being already home every time I land. So many hour work sessions you can’t get in when the airplane is 20 minutes away. I remember the wife crying when I was moving the RV to the airport, she was gonna miss the closeness of me being in the garage all the time. The RV has also allowed me to visit lots of private strips and taste the experience, yes it’s a lot of work and money but so is building an airplane. I know building the airplane is totally worth it, I hope the airstrip is too.

Yes Andy; it will most definitely be worth it! From 64GA, Big T, 2000' Grass....

 

[Tag]

New Tool acquired, took a couple hours driving in 4LO to get home at 10mph.

A fellow Aviator passed away and family getting rid of stuff. Don’t think he ever built an airplane but if he did it woulda been plans. I really like how this thing was built, scraps and pieces put together taking more time than money to make a well thought out and functional roller. Heavy built and pulls very well, can’t wait to use it!

That right there is a major score - tough to come by and makes a huge difference. We roll ours twice a year after a few days of rain...

 

[crabandy]

Planted the grass last night thanks to help from a friend, come on nice and gentle rains….

 

[DaveO]

I have a grass private strip. I actually had two totally. Not at the same time. One had a course bladed grass like Ky -31. I had a bare spots that were not filled in with grass and it left a hole between the clumps of grass that was not advantageous to airplane wheels, especially small ones. So when I decided to move and put in another grass strip, I one I have now, I used Ky Bluegrass. It is a thin bladed grass and it never clumped in the bare spots. It has lasted more than 20+ years. It does require fertilizer once a year to stay healthy. The only thought I would have about Asphalt surface would be if you decided or the next owner decides to remove the airstrip there would be the cost of removing the asphalt from the field. It could be expensive. Whereas the grass you could just plow it up or whatever. I really enjoyed my home strip, I would go for a joy ride in the evening on short notice, take off and fly the entire county in 15 minutes, land and go in and watch my favorite TV show. Easily done, what a privilege it is to have your own place. We in America are truly blessed. 66IN

 

[crabandy]

I have a grass private strip. I actually had two totally. Not at the same time. One had a course bladed grass like Ky -31. I had a bare spots that were not filled in with grass and it left a hole between the clumps of grass that was not advantageous to airplane wheels, especially small ones. So when I decided to move and put in another grass strip, I one I have now, I used Ky Bluegrass. It is a thin bladed grass and it never clumped in the bare spots. It has lasted more than 20+ years. It does require fertilizer once a year to stay healthy. The only thought I would have about Asphalt surface would be if you decided or the next owner decides to remove the airstrip there would be the cost of removing the asphalt from the field. It could be expensive. Whereas the grass you could just plow it up or whatever. I really enjoyed my home strip, I would go for a joy ride in the evening on short notice, take off and fly the entire county in 15 minutes, land and go in and watch my favorite TV show. Easily done, what a privilege it is to have your own place. We in America are truly blessed. 66IN

Prolly shoulda mentioned I used Buffalo Grass for water/temp/turf properties.

 

[crabandy]

I guess it’s a runway now!

 

[crabandy]

Landing went great, taxi got interesting…….
Ground was slightly soft but fine, after 75 yards it felt like I had hit a soft spot I wasn’t going to make it through. Shut things down and found the foot tall grass we’d cut yesterday was balling up like hair in chewing gum on the edges of the wheelpants.
In the hour and a half it took to catch a ride to get tools to remove the wheelpants it rained another 1/2”. Got the wheelpants removed and gonna let things dry up a bit this afternoon before attempting the first takeoff.

 

[71459]

Be careful. A rough field like that will also shake and vibrate the wheel pants until the pieces start breaking. Had it happen to me after just a few visits. Might consider flying without the wheel pants if regularly operating off a rough strip.

 

[crabandy]

Be careful. A rough field like that will also shake and vibrate the wheel pants until the pieces start breaking. Had it happen to me after just a few visits. Might consider flying without the wheel pants if regularly operating off a rough strip.

Understood on the wheelpants, sometimes I wonder if the fit and assembly of the wheelpants are more to blame than rough runways. I’ve been on a few last 700 hours and worse damage I’ve had was a rock sticking to the tire came through the wheel pant from the inside.

Actually I was surprised at how smooth it was brand new or not, was better than most municipal grass runway I’ve been on, I’ve been on a few of my coaches runways and been trying to heed their advice.

 

[crabandy]

My Lil’ Dude did the video freehand
https://andycrabtree.smugmug.com/Crabtree-Airfield/i-W83FptG

 

[Bill Boyd]

View attachment 91332

Landing went great, taxi got interesting…….
Ground was slightly soft but fine, after 75 yards it felt like I had hit a soft spot I wasn’t going to make it through. Shut things down and found the foot tall grass we’d cut yesterday was balling up like hair in chewing gum on the edges of the wheelpants.
In the hour and a half it took to catch a ride to get tools to remove the wheelpants it rained another 1/2”. Got the wheelpants removed and gonna let things dry up a bit this afternoon before attempting the first takeoff.

You'll get used to the joys. It'll be a smoother roll-out once the grass fills in, or the wheel pants break off. Cracks around the tire opening and thickly caked -on grass stains on the bottoms of the pants are just part of the game.

 

[iwannarv]

Nice Andy! Hope to visit one of these days,

 

[[email protected]]

View attachment 91332

Landing went great, taxi got interesting…….
Ground was slightly soft but fine, after 75 yards it felt like I had hit a soft spot I wasn’t going to make it through. Shut things down and found the foot tall grass we’d cut yesterday was balling up like hair in chewing gum on the edges of the wheelpants.
In the hour and a half it took to catch a ride to get tools to remove the wheelpants it rained another 1/2”. Got the wheelpants removed and gonna let things dry up a bit this afternoon before attempting the first takeoff.

Suggest you switch to wheel fairings from Sky Designs. They are shaped to be more tolerant of soft ground.

Welcome | skydesigns

www.skydesigns.aero

 

[[email protected]]

I admit my inexperience on this, but why does any government have any say in how a person chooses to use his rural property? I am looking for land in south central NC and have no intention to ask for government permission for any motorized vehicle I might choose to use on or above it. I also see no reason to have it on an aeronautical chart.

 

[Pilot135pd]

.......The minimum usable runway width of 60 feet shall be applied for hard surface runways and a minimum usable runway width of 60 feet shall be applied to turf or sod runways. .......

The person who wrote this was paid per word. Could have just written "The minimum usable runway width is 60 feet"

 

[Pilot135pd]

I admit my inexperience on this, but why does any government have any say in how a person chooses to use his rural property? I am looking for land in south central NC and have no intention to ask for government permission for any motorized vehicle I might choose to use on or above it. I also see no reason to have it on an aeronautical chart.

Because if you don't follow laws, you can get in trouble, most people anyway. Even if you don't don't want to follow local laws, there's also the federal laws to comply with.

If you aren't going to use it for more than a year, you don't have to register the runway with the FAA. I wouldn't spend so much money on a runway if I weren't going to use it more than a year. You could do like I did many years when I didn't even know about this regulation, and just mowed a little bit of the hay field a couple of times when I wanted to fly. Of course back then phones didn't have cameras so nobody would know when I started flying there. Now everybody takes pictures and posts everything online. One picture of you landing there over a year ago and another picture of you today, and that's all some inspector looking to climb the FAA ladder needs to bust you.

When to File a Notice for Construction, Alteration and Deactivation of Airports
Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 157 requires all persons to notify the FAA at least 90 days before construction, alteration, activation, deactivation, or change to the status or use of a civil or joint-use (civil/military) airport.*

Notice is not required for:
1. Establishment of a temporary airport at which operations will be conducted under visual flight rule (VFR) and will be used for less than 30 days with no more than 10 operations per day.
2. Intermittent use of a site that is not an established airport, which is used for less than one year, and at which flight operations will be conducted only under VFR. (Intermittent use means the use of the site for no more than 3 days in any one week and for no more than 10 operations per day.)

* As used herein, the term “Airport” means: Any Landing or Takeoff Area, e.g. Airport, Heliport, Vertiport, Gliderport, Seaplane Base, Ultralight Flightpark or Balloonport.

 

[airguy]

The person who wrote this was paid per word. Could have just written "The minimum usable runway width is 60 feet"

Guess they wouldn't approve of mine - 5000' x 30' cut into the middle of a wheat field. We keep it bladed and packed, bare dirt. We don't get much rain out here so very few weeds trying to come up, hit it with roundup about 4 times a year for the ones that do, and run a blade over it if they get out of control.

No, I don't need 5000' - but we have friends with bigger airplanes that are more comfortable that way. We had the land and farming is not a priority on that section, so why not?

 

[Pilot135pd]

Guess they wouldn't approve of mine - 5000' x 30' cut into the middle of a wheat field.

I think that regulation is for Alabama. We don't need no stinkin' minimum width here in Texas

 

[Mel]

I think that regulation is for Alabama. We don't need no stinkin' minimum width here in Texas

Otherwise they would probably not like my 20' wide runway. That's over 3 time the width of my gear. Just learn to keep it straight.

 

[airguy]

Otherwise they would probably not like my 20" wide runway. That's over 3 time the width of my gear. Just learn to keep it straight.

A skill which, sadly, does not appear to be practiced much.

 

[Bill Boyd]

A skill which, sadly, does not appear to be practiced much.

Well, you gotta admit, twenty inches is a pretty narrow runway - but, Gil - he's got that narrow 6-inch gear going for him, which is nice

 

[Mel]

Well, you gotta admit, twenty inches is a pretty narrow runway - but, Gil - he's got that narrow 6-inch gear going for him, which is nice

Sorry about the "fat fingers"! My runway is actually 20 feet wide.

 

[crabandy]

Rolled the runway couple weeks ago even though it was dry it smoothed things.
Thinking of my game plan for next year on over-seeding, weed control and fertilizer.

 

[Kyle Boatright]

Rolled the runway couple weeks ago even though it was dry it smoothed things.
Thinking of my game plan for next year on over-seeding, weed control and fertilizer.

How big/ heavy is that roller?
Does the truck create ruts? That's always been my concern - the tow vehicle leaving ruts big enough the roller won't flatten 'em.

 

[crabandy]

How big/ heavy is that roller?
Does the truck create ruts? That's always been my concern - the tow vehicle leaving ruts big enough the roller won't flatten 'em.

Best guess roller is 5,500-6,000 lbs based on a rough cylindrical volume of the propane tank filled with sand plus a little bit for the metal frame. I acquired it from a semi local guy who built/flew from his own strip years ago, he did a good job.
It’s wider than the truck/tractor so smushes any tracks either make, if the roller won’t flatten your ruts you’re definitely not moving the roller.
I’ld be curious to know how to roughly calculate the “force” applied to the ground reference the truck tires etc. Also the moment of inertia of the roller is something else, more like pulling on a stuck truck than a 10,000 lb trailer.
This was my first rolling experiment, not sure the truck would do it but also didn’t want to road the tractor either. We’ll see how it goes with a little moisture.