Hey guys. Started working on my airstrip today. It won't be much of a back country strip, but it'll be nice for my friends with planes not equipped like mine. It is 75 feet wide from tree line to strip edge, and 1688 feet long. Nice and open to the west, a yard site half mile out is the closest obstruction, and a power line about 200 feet from the east end.
This is looking west after my first pass.

Looking west after akmost done knocking down all the trees. Will clear the fence line and row of trees remaining on left side of picture tomorrow.

From the west end looking back to the east.

Looking east from the east end of the strip.
My current runway is from the little grey building you can see right on the left side of the pic, to the road. Involves taking off from the road under the wire and be airborne 100 feet before the grey shack, and really coming in slow to land heading east, reverse of the takeoff. Landing is solo amd light only.
David

My God. What is that horrid looking white stuff on the ground and why are the trees all dead? Don't they know it's April already!

I know Exodus! Its a late spring for sure. Even got some snow today! Gonna be late getting in the fields for sure. But the moisture will definitely be nice.

Got all the trees cleared and puled off to the side. Now wait for the snow to melt and ground to thaw so I can disk it.

Looks great! And playin with that equipment would be fun too. Called a friend of mine yesterday to see if he wanted to go snowmobiling, said he was planting so couldn't go. Spring is a little early down here.

When you get done send the coordinates or PM so we can fly over and check it out.
We will be doing the same on the week of 22 April. Dozer is booked to open a second strip on the west quarter, this will be North to South 300 ft wide by 1800.
The present one on the East quarter is 2800 ft 300 ft more than enough for the Maule M4 210C.
Until snow melts keeping her at CFC7 in the hangar.
We have to clear some 4 to 6 inch mixed trees for the total distance of the runway, somewhat like you are doing.
Could you let me know how many hours it takes you to complete it. I have used the same guys over the years and they are great operators and good people. I see it's you own cat, nice.
G

Hey Beamer. It took me about 12 hours to clear the trees. I have a lot of dozer experience so it was pretty simple work for me. The farmer I work for has a JD 850C, which is pretty nice for this type of work. I was able to roll most of the stumps out which will make disking a lot easier. Will hit it a couple of times with a heavy breaking disk, then shape it a bit and pack it, finally seeding to fescue. Hopefully I will have it done by early summer.
Co-ordinates are: Lat-55°36'51.82"N, Long-118° 3'29.97"W.
Whee, I do love running equipment. I used to work construction for 8 years before going farming. While I dont miss the lifestyle of the oilpatch, I do sometimes miss running dozer and excavator. Turns out that there is plenty of both to do on the farm for the next couple of years, as we have a few good projects that we are working on.

David

Did a few touch and goes on the new strip. Wouldn't do it on anything smaller then 31"s right now. A wee rough and muddy. But worked pretty good. Excited to have it all done!
David

Be sure to get some crown on it to handle the moisture. Water runs downhill. Any flatness becomes a pond (tank if you are from W. Texas.)

contactflying wrote:Be sure to get some crown on it to handle the moisture. Water runs downhill. Any flatness becomes a pond (tank if you are from W. Texas.)

Oh it'll be getting a bit of a crown. Spent a lot of years building roads, so I have a good handle on which way water runs. It will run on level ground if it has to. Not much water near the strip, as the trees to the north are a lower area, so should be able to get away with very little or no crown. Will see how the melt goes right now and watch the water closely so as I can deal with it if need be.
Thanks

David

Gave it a good shot of round up last night so I can start disking it later today.

A1Skinner wrote:Gave it a good shot of round up last night so I can start disking it later today.

You are a year ahead of me on your project, so I have enjoyed your photos and progress reports. I would *greatly* appreciate additional details on this phase of the project as it directly overlaps what I will need to do once the last season of corn is gone.

You are using round-up first. How long will you wait before discing? Are you doing the round-up now so that you can disc and then plant a monoculture into the freshly disced soil? Will you simply allow the soil to settle after discing/planting or are you planning to roll it somehow?

rw2, I will wait about 24 hrs after spraying to disc. It only takes 24hrs for the chemical to reach the eoots, and even if you haven't seen a color change yet, it is working. I will then do a coupke passes with a heavy disc to ensure the stumps are broken up. If needed, I will do a small amount of dirt work, but if any, it will be a very small amount. I will roll the strip with the big field rollers that we have. Then I will spread fescue and drag a small diamond harrow over it. Then let nature do its thing!
I also have to install a culvert on the east end to taxi over a drainage ditch. I have culvert, just waiting for a time to get it done.
David

A1Skinner wrote:rw2, I will wait about 24 hrs after spraying to disc. It only takes 24hrs for the chemical to reach the eoots, and even if you haven't seen a color change yet, it is working. I will then do a coupke passes with a heavy disc to ensure the stumps are broken up. If needed, I will do a small amount of dirt work, but if any, it will be a very small amount. I will roll the strip with the big field rollers that we have. Then I will spread fescue and drag a small diamond harrow over it. Then let nature do its thing!
I also have to install a culvert on the east end to taxi over a drainage ditch. I have culvert, just waiting for a time to get it done.

Thanks. I was pretty sure I remembered that any round-up not in the plant was broken down by sunlight within 48 hours, so I guessed it would be quick. Thanks for the confirmation on that.

I'm not sure what to do about rolling my strip. We have a fair amount of woods/pasture, but very little tillable land, so we have only a utility tractor. I'm only familiar with rollers for big, flat hay/pasture operations and we have none of that at the farm (SW Wisconsin is largely sandstone hills). I'll have to see if the guy who rents our tillable has any ideas on that front.

Thanks again. I'll look forward to additional updates as you go.

Nice! I'll have to stop in on my way from Winnipeg with the Pacer if my transfer to BC comes through this year[-o< !

We seeded clover on my buddy's airstrip in the Chilcotin. It took real well and the roots formed a tough mat that stood up to heavy airplanes real well...by heavy I mean I was in and out of there regulary with a Beech 1900. Nothing grows well out there because it's fairly high altitude and the soil is really poor but the clover did fine. No mowing really required but his horses would graze on the airstrip so I don't know how thick the clover would get if it wasn't grazed down a little.

You'll have a great strip! Congrats!

Northernguy, I'd love to have you drop in. Im not a big fan of clover, and the fescue goes pretty quick with a wide mower. Hopefully I dont have any beach 1900s landing here. The neighbors may not like all that noise!
Got a few passes on the strip with the disk. Looking good! Heres a couple pics.


Found a soft spot!! The snow melting out of the brush piles got me!

This is where the culvert goes, right in front of the disk.


David

Musta been a little breezy in the Cat back in April, looked like the window was punched out.

Can you run by the process again for me? You leveled and cleared the trees and stumps with the dozer, then looks like you planted grass, then nuked the whole thing with round-up, then rotor-tilled everything back up again. How you going to get it smooth enough to plant grass again? City folk here need a country dictionary to figure out what fescue is.

Fescue came from Russia in the 50s and saved Stone County Missouri from looking like a rock pile for life. It is a very tough cool season grass that will survive a drought better than other cool season grasses like orchard grass and brome. It will give you a smooth surface. Orchard grass is very bumpy.

Anybody who can run a backhoe smoothly can hover a helicopter in about twenty minutes.

Karmutzen wrote:Musta been a little breezy in the Cat back in April, looked like the window was punched out.

Can you run by the process again for me? You leveled and cleared the trees and stumps with the dozer, then looks like you planted grass, then nuked the whole thing with round-up, then rotor-tilled everything back up again. How you going to get it smooth enough to plant grass again? City folk here need a country dictionary to figure out what fescue is.

A tree on another piece of land I was clearing got the window. It was an expensive day. They run just shy of $800.

So, I cleared all the stumps and trees, then after the spring melt, weeds and native grasses grew. I dont want any weeds on my strip, so I nuked it with roundup. This also kills any little trees growing. Then I disked it to break up the sod and any remaining stumps. I will now harrow it to break it up and make it nice and smooth, then spread fescue, and harrow it again.
The best way to describe fescue, its what is in most back yards and golf courses.
David

Nice. I can't say that I approve of that Case IH tractor but the JD spray rig is awesome!!!! I still have a shot of green paint every morning.