Posts: 3191
Joined: 12/18/2001 From: Arlington, TX, USA Status: online
Hooray! We got our runway put down this weekend. At this point it's 300' long and 43' wide. We used 3 rolls of ProPex 2019.
Saturday, we had a crew who spread 10 cu yards of fill sand into 4 gullies that had developed. Then, we put the first 300' by 15' piece of ProPex down.
Sunday we put down two 300' by 15' pieces of ProPex completely stretched in 3 1/2 hours with 8 people. We developed a new technique of stretching the fabric. As you will see in the photos, after anchoring the fabric at one end, we used a pickup truck to stretch the fabric. We did about 80 feet at a time. While the fabric is in tension one edge is completely stapled down. After that, a team of four people kicked the fabric to the other side while another team of four people staple that side down. This is repeated. When we got to the end of a roll, the ProPex was lapped over a 2 by 4 and another 2 by 4 was used along with C clamps to clamp the ProPex. The pickup was again used to stretch the fabric, this time only one edge. After stapling the edge down the 2 by 4 assembly was moved over to the other edge to stretch it. The over laps were about 1' and we used 8"staples. We did the last 1/3 of the last piece in the rain. As soon as the rain slacked a bit, one of our members made a test flight.
All of us are now certified in ProPex kicking, sore toes and all.
Posts: 8687
Joined: 1/7/2002 From: Missoula, MT, USA Status: offline
looks great. Ours is looking good too. One guy (the first to fly on it), had a prop strike and it made a tiny hole. A guy just called me and said it turned into a big hole, but I really hope he is just messing with me. I will drive down later in the week to make sure. Everyone says it patches easy.
Posts: 735
Joined: 2/8/2002 From: ruston, LA, USA Status: offline
This looks like something the club in my area would be interested in. What was the cost of the Propex? A few years back the club spent some where close to $15,000 for a runway. Big bucks. When the city closed it down the city didn't offer to pay for a new runway so the club is on grass now.
Posts: 3191
Joined: 12/18/2001 From: Arlington, TX, USA Status: online
tonyc, the ProPex (2019) that we used was $605/300' by 15' roll delivered plus tax. We were able to order it locally from Texas Steel Culvert company. It was delivered in about 5 days. The 2019 is a heavy gauge fabric. Each roll weighs over 200 lbs. If it sits on the ground a few days like ours did, mice will set up house keeping in the tube. We had to evict them.
David I believe you but we wanted to get most of the wrinkles out. Kinda like Monokote and let the heat do the rest.
Flyboy, another club that I belong to has Petromat and patching is not a problem. They usually use a piece of fabric and a few staples. I read on your thread that a small piece with contact glue works well.
Posts: 26
Joined: 8/17/2004 From: Irving,
TX, USA Status: offline
Tylenol? Heck no - corn plasters and a cold beer! I had the privilege of the "first flight" on a crash-repaired H9 Twister ARF. First flight after major fuselage destruction - smooth as silk and a lot of fun!
You ever in North Texas - stop on by and try out our new field.
Printable Version
All Forums >> Radios, Batteries, Clubhouse and more >> The Clubhouse >> AT LAST!!! Our new ProPex Runway is down 
AT LAST!!! Our new ProPex Runway is down - 
I had the privilege of the "first flight" on a crash-repaired H9 Twister ARF. First flight after major fuselage destruction - smooth as silk and a lot of fun! 