propjobbill

I would like to put in a new runway. My grass is some what smooth, but I would like to put in a very smooth runway. I would like for it to be as smooth as a golf course fairway or almost as smoth as a putting Green. Can anyone tell me where I can get information on putting in a smooth runway. What I need to do. Are there any web sites about things like that?

THANKS BILL

Lynn S

Most grass strips I have been to just keep it mowed. It would think zoysia grass would make a nice smooth strip.

Bipe Flyer

It has taken a few years, but our club runway is like a golf course.

We roll our runway once in the spring and mow it twice a week from spring to autumn. It hasn't been mowed since October and I can still take off with 1/2A planes tht have 1.5" wheels.

I think that the reason it is so nice is because we get a LOT of rain and we cut it very short twice a week.

[link=http://www.missionwings.com/showthumbs.asp?type=img&path=images/pics/misc&thumbdesc=t]Here [/link] is a link to some club pictures. You can see how the runway has progressed over the past several years.

XJet

I guess I'm spoilt -- I have an 800 yard sealed runway right outside my workshop door :-)


Mind you -- while sealed strips are great for landing bigger craft and especially jet-powered planes, they're not always the best place to land/"arrive" a jittery little 1/2A model :-)

cropdusterdave

My Feedback: (2)

I used to be a greenskeeper and the work that goes into a nice smooth surface is kind of cost prohibitive for an RC runway. We used to build the putting greens with a high percentage of sand....planted specialty grass....watered every other day and aerated often. If you just fertilize and groom with care you should be in good shape. At the field I fly at....the city recreation dept. mowes our runway. Nothing else...we have a pretty smooth surface.

Rendegade

Astro turf Hockey fields are my strip of choice for little ones...

Other than that I fly off a grass strip that's not always in top condition, I occasionally have to "empty out" the wheel pants of pattern ship, of lawn clippings.

Bipe Flyer

Isn't astro turf difficult to skate on? [sm=lol.gif]

Rendegade

Hahaha, yeah it is, you need to use really really slippery skates!!!

No, no Ice hockey, normal hockey, you know that game where they wear their socks waaay too high, and carry funny bent sticks for whacking balls around?

Bipe Flyer

In Canada ice hockey IS normal hockey.

paulsen

My Feedback: (2)

You guy's are all lucky my local air strip is an old airport strip that's got so many pot hole's and dug up rock's and dirt that i quit flying thier.I now resort to a wide median in the center of a two lane high way that's usually not very busy.I have to have a friend watch for traffic,and pray I don't go dead stick.[:@]

Clean

Seed, roll and irregate will get you plenty smooth enough. A good grass surface is preferable to a paved one, much easier on aircraft. If possible, a reel mower can provide you with a superior cut surface over the normal blade mower. The rolling though is the important part. A little top dressing couldn't hurt either, filling in your low spots and such.

Yes, like cropdusterdave, a couple years on the course. Still miss not mowing 18 feet at a whack and watching the heavy morning dew and grass clippings going flying out of my Toro self propelled 7 gang, sigh.

Rendegade

Hehehehe I know I spent a fair bit of last night talking to a pair of young ladies from Toronto, and somehow ice hockey came up...


OH and I managed to walk out of the place with the only "canadian club" flap hat In australia you can't buy them for love nor money!

FLAPS DOWN!




... Oh and just a thought, we've seen a few guys acutally use a strip of linoleum to get their baby planes off the deck, considering our grass field isn't always te best.

It's a good quick fix and you can roll it up and take it home!

N1EDM

My Feedback: (2)

Is zoysia grass that stuff that you plant in plugs? and if it doesn't get water it turns brown in about 2 minutes? Or am I thinking about something else?

I remember reading something in a Sunday Newspaper ad years ago, and I thought (the operative word here is 'thought') that it was zoysia grass.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Bob

jessiej

Different types of grass are better suited for certain parts of the country. I would recommend that you talk with someone at your local lawn & garden supply to find out what does well in your area.

jess

propjobbill

I thank you one and all for your feedback
Thanks Bill

Clean

Zoysia is thick and tuff stuff. Last thing green and the first thing brown in the seasons, but pretty draught tolerant. In this area we have Bent Grass greens, other areas use Bermuda. Several of the golf courses I worked on went from Turf Type fescue fairways with Bluegrass collers to Zoysia to put up with the intense useage we were going through in the late 80'sm early 90's.

If you cut Fescue to 2 inches and did the same with Zoysia, your wheels would disappear in the Zoysia and get locked in, at least I couldn't taxi my planes in my front yard in my youth. Fescue on the other hand will let your wheels slip right through.

You don't want to cut it much shorter than that though unless you get regular rain, like every 3 or 4 days.

2fast4u

My Feedback: (5)

We get everyone together twice a year. We get a pile of sand and a wheel barrel. Everyone gets a bucket of sand and starts walking the runway. If we feel a low spot, we fill it. After a couple of years, it's smooth.

Another cheap trick is to put a washer or 2 between the blade and the base of the mower. This lowers the blade below where your lowest setting is. The first couple of mowings look awful, but with normal care (in the south) it will green up real well. Our club has always had the nicest grass field around, and that's all we ever do.

videorov

My Feedback: (1)

I would go with pavement. In the end its less money.

aspeed

There is a fabric that some clubs are using with fairly good results too.  30' by 300' or so. 

DeviousDave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiP7-HBHwPc

longdan

I remember visiting a club a few years ago where they had about half a dozen sheets of construction plywood that they would lay down end to end when the cows had chewed up the grass strip too badly.