Ta daaa!  The finished product...ready for flight

Under the steady direction of our runway project manager, Mike Pendley, who was ably assisted by Bob Boothby, we now have a new, smooth 300 X 30 foot nylon fabric runway.  It is indeed a thing of beauty and features a 6 foot wide taxiway from each gate location.  No more watching your airplane lurch, statgger, and stumble over the stubble and no more multi-hop landings (well, for some of us anyway).  A big thanks goes to everyone who brought their tractors (we had four in all and could have had a couple more had we needed them).  A super big thanks goes to Shorty Delong, our field owner, who provided two of his tractors.  We couldn't have done it in a day and a half without his help and equipment!  The following pics tell the story.  Thanks to everyone who brought their hoes, rakes, shovels, and mallets (I never want to see another 6" staple again...yes, we placed the staples every foot along the sides and in the center of the runway (and of course along the ends and around each taxiway).  Egad!  The crew began Friday morning and left that evening with a level strip of dirt for a runway.  We returned on Saturday morning and picked up debris for about an hour and then began laying the two rolls of 300 X 15 foot fabric.  Once the first strip was down, we laid the second strip beside it with a 6" overlay.  The edges were turned under a couple of inches and the ends were buried so that landing aircraft won't snag on any exposed material.  When you see it, I think you'll agree that it's a wonderful job!

Sure, I can drive a tractor...can't I?

Spare Part!

Shorty's multi-purpose, runway clearing,
all terrain tractor...Bob Boothby operator

The state of things on Friday at 4:00 PM

The fabric goes down with hundreds...nay, thousands of staples

More staples

Staple stool...Jim used one of these when he
used to catch babies!

The second side goes on

Mike keeps everyone marching (AKA stapling) in a straight line

Missy and Johnny rake in the grass seed.
All we need now is rain...Johnny's department!

Billy converts his "Pride and Joy"
into a leaf (AKA seed) blower

Billy makes the maiden flight

The first takeoff was smooth...very smooth

GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY

We have been talking a lot lately about noise and wondering how to minimize noise at our flying field.  Despite the availability of dB meters, the evaluation of noise levels is an inexact science.  Whether or not a noise is offensive is entirely in the eyes (or ears) of the beholder.  Click on the following link to read a great article on model engine noise by Joe Wagner: http://www.eskimo.com/~smallnet/JoeArticles/EngineNoise.html