Dave the RcFlyer

just curious as to what type of runways you guys prefer. Ours right now stinks because someone thought it would be funny to tear cookies into both ends after it rained. but you can still fly off of it just every once and a while you shut your plane off ubruptly

lemme know the pros and cons of each I'm curious to know how each handles on take-off and landing/techniques needed to reduce speed at the end of some of them.

Intruder38

Unless you have some sort of security, natural or otherwise, a nice expanse of short grass seems to draw the mental midgets whose motto seems to be, "If you can't create, destroy". Our field has both grass and asphalt runways, and we have had few incidents because our landlord has a reputation for "protecting his property". At our prior field (all grass), however, we had a continuous problem with "donuts" cut into the field, debris from parties(?), and uninvited guests. Chains, gates, and stakeouts did nothing to catch or stop the vandalism. Frustrating, yes, but not nearly as frustrating as having 24 homesites take precedence over our use of the field.

Good luck. Don't give up the fight. Maybe they'll grow out of it...eventually.

SST

My Feedback: (2)

Pavement is great if you like to ROG with small planes, but it's unforgiving to hard landings, and you can't land your non- LG equipped planes on it. So if you have a paved runway, you then need to have grass to land on if necessary. This requires more area, money, and skill (your glider won't like it if you miss the grass and set it on the pavement ). I believe in the KISS principal, so grass is fine with me.

hookedonrc

I chose asphalt in the poll since that is what I fly off of mostly. We have both asphalt and grass runways running parallel to each other. The grass is pretty smooth except for where a truck left a few ruts from re-sealing the asphalt this Spring. Luckily the ruts are at each end so the middle is still real smooth. I have flown off of concrete and like it as well. Basically for me, if it is smooth, long, and wide, I am OK with any surface except for gravel or grass if I am flying with wheel pants.

Doug D.

I have flown off grass, concrete and asphalt. I prefer grass because of it's forgiving nature with some models. But I'm pretty flexible. Most of the fields in our area are grass anyway. Most of the fields here are on private land so if someone gets onto it and tears it up they can be prosicuted for trasspassing at the very least.

CrashBurn69

My Feedback: (1)

I like asphalt to take off on, but I love grass because when I come in too fast, the grass will slow it down faster, so the plane does not roll forever.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

We use Geotex. It's not on your list. It has the softness of grass with the roll out of asphalt. If it's not fenced of though the kids will tear it up.

David

Gremlin Castle

My Feedback: (14)

David what weight/thickness Geotex are you using? We are in the process of moving our runway to another location on the same field>

8178

My Feedback: (17)

Nothing beats tarmac runways for making the most beautiful take offs and landings. I occasionally see experienced flyers that treat their landings like they are semi-controlled crashes and is just the end of their flight, ker-plop on to the tarmac. Especially flyers with tail draggers that bounce down the runway or swerve all over the place on take off. Often bouncing into the pit area or the pit screen. IMHO if you can’t make a good take off and landing what you can do with your aircraft in the air is worthless to me.

Picture a beautiful aircraft on the final glide slope, across the runway threshold nose high and sinking slowly, the main gear gracefully contacting the tarmac (little puffs of smoke as the tires get up to speed), nose gear high, as the aircraft rolls on the main gear the nose gear slowly touches down, the aircraft rolls to a stop about ¾ way down the runway, turns and taxies back to the taxi off ramp and the engine is shut down. Add the sound of a turbine engine spooling down to the engine shut down sequence and the picture is complete.

hookedonrc

Try as I might I still just can't get those little puffs of smoke on my landings. ....lol

3DFanatic

My Feedback: (5)

Ditto haha.

I noticed gravel is on your list. That'd be a highly dangerious runway material as rocks could easily be thrown by the prop. Furthermore, hard landings and even normal rollouts would cause grooves in the gravel making it quite uneven before long... I usually fly off of grass.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

So long as it is smooth, it doesn't matter.

BadBart

My Feedback: (1)

I chose asphalt because I just have the hardest time taking off my .40 size tail draggers. They constantly want to nose over when the grass hasn't been cut the day before or if it had rained. BUT, you just can't beat that soft grass for landings!
Pat

Intruder38

Daveopam,

You mention Geotex. I have been looking without success for a laydown material to replace our aging asphalt. My web search of Geotex yields lots of tecnical data for uses other than RC (No surprise there). Do you have hands-on experience with the stuff? If so, what can you tell me about it (price, how it works, longevity, etc)?

Thanks for any assist you can give.

Woodpile

Hooked,

We fly on packed dirt so if you grease the landing, you're rewarded by those little puffs of "smoke" in the dry weather... It's great when you see that and hear the wheels spin up.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

Our Geotex has been down for 5 years. Back then it cost $3500. That price includes a 45'x500' runway. A 200'x12' ramp with
three 12'x50' taxi ways. Plus the 7,000 6" staples and 300 12" spikes and washers. We used two types of the matterial. The heavy for the runway and the lighter grade for the ramp/taxi way. The pics I'm attaching are from the folder we ordered out of. If you guys need some info please e-mail or PM me. I will get back to you in a day or two.

The highlighted ones are what we used. The big difference in the two is the UV rating. We thought the sun would be the worst thing for it. As of now the two have help up about the same.
David


I am having trouble adding the pics right now. I will try again later. Send me an e-mail the should go through that no problem. They are also on this site somewhere in another forum from back in the spring. Maybe they would turn up by searching this site.

david

Whiskey Breath

My Feedback: (8)

Nothing beats a nice smooth grass runway. That's why I built my own flying field. 60' x 600' just like putting green. It just doesn't get any better than this. I built a 24'X24' x 14' building in the center. I open the door taxie out, fly taxie back in and go home. I think I'm in heaven. Check it out.

http://www.smwireless.net/~gweaver/

dr_wogz

My Feedback: (3)

Our club has an 'asphalt' runway. We have grass at the ends and on the sides, for that' jsut in case' feeling. Two other clubs I 'visit' to have grass. Nice and wide.

With the asphalt runway, you have to be pertty good to land her. Some will say it teaches better landing technique, as you have to put her donw within a relatively small area, then a good roll out. Your landings become quite perdictable. Also, the size of the model is irrelavent, as all sized wheels roll nicely.

Grass on teh other hand, you can put her down.. Almost anywhere! adn roll out as needed.. (so, the plane will land when it is ready, not you landing the plane... now!) Grass, your smaller flyers will have problems rolling (unless it is a manicured runway..)

But asphalt can bite you, one hard landing, and you're pretty much lost your prop.. and nicely scuff your spinner..

Less maintenance too, as it'll get very little 'heavy use'. "Driveway" paint in the spring, and maybe patch a bit here and there. Grass: weekly cutting, and montlhy rolling. And teh odd puddle!

I have been to antoher local feild, and their runway is old conveyor blet material. Let's just say, it's seen better days. There are some rips, and quite a few 'speed bumps' ( the mat seems to have buckeled under the hot summer sun, and the icy winter snow..) If I remeber, there was one 'bump' that could launch you at the end of teh runway..

RCRAINMAN

Our field has a long asphalt runway, but I prefer to land on the grass adjacent to it. The grass provides better friction for both takeoffs and landings. Since I only fly conventional-geared planes, this extra friction keeps me from ground looping all the time. I find that even when I have "happy feet" on the rudder, I still manage to ground loop 50% of the time on the paved surface. This is in contrast to my 5% chance on grass.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I still can't post the pics. Our club website is out dated but still works. After you open it click on
our field. There are a few good pics of the Geotex runway.

www.mbcsi.com/flyingaces


David

XJet

We're lucky enough to have 3,500 feet of tarmac for our runway (but some days it just doesn't seem long enough -- like when there's a really strong cross-wind and we end up with a 30 foot long strip that's 3,500 feet wide :-)

You can get some idea from our club website

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

I'll vote for Grass also......

Jerry

Bob101

Asphalt for takeoff.
Grass for landing.

Tho I rarely fly off anything other than grass. I guess asphalt is good for both if you fly small planes, but 4-6" tires handle grass great on landings and I would rahter land on it.

XJet

I love flying off tarmac but it's not good stuff to crash onto.

When my littler-stick decided it'd had enough, it chose to do a snap-roll straight into the runway from about 15 feet at full throttle. There was not much left of that bird after impact.

Everything back to the rear of the wing was totally demolished and I'm surprised that the engine wasn't smashed into a million pieces (although there was some crankcase damage).

But, for doing things like take-offs, ultra-smooth landings and touch-and-gos, nothing beats a nicely sealed runway.

We also have quite a few turbine fliers come from miles around to use our sealed strip -- for obvious reasons.

Lee Belew

My Feedback: (2)

I prefer asphalt runways.

Yes it can be a little harsh if you nose in on the asphalt and some do. However the benefits of the hard surface for taking off far out ways the descructive aspect. I flew off grass for more than 30 yrs. Now I fly off asphalt and I like it better. You ding a lot of props if you land a little hard so you learn to land better.
I have included a photo of our field. The runways are 50' X 600'.

Go fly have fun.

Lee