I started this journey many years ago watching my buddies dad piece together an RV6. I looked at the Air Force Academy and finally ended up on an air contract with the USMC - I was waivered to get in (motocross knee injuries) and ended up blowing my knee back out while I was at Quantico and never got into flight training.

Fast forward nearly a decade and I finally decided to start my PPL!

My family has owned a ranch breeding whitetail and exotics for about 15 years and now that I live 3.5 hours from there it's a pain to make a weekend trip. We are unofficially out of the business now and just let all of our breeding stock out (the place is high fenced) and just enjoy our little piece of heaven.

My aviation bug never went away and flying to the ranch seemed like a "justifiable" excuse (that and I'm making a little more money!) to finally live my dream. Low and slow and remote places has always been my MO - hell I grew up in the woods! This site has provided a wealth of resources so I wanted to share a little about me and where I am now.

I recently completed my PPL in March and bought an M4 a couple weeks ago. I learned to fly in a Cub, and did all my primary in it other than required things in the 172.

Anyway, point of the story (guess I could have left everything else out!) is that I cut in my runway this weekend. It needs a few weeks for everything to die off and I will go back and disc and grade it. It's about 1100'X50' and I can't wait to get down there for the first time! I will post pictures as it comes along.

Here is where it is now:

North end of 15 looking south(ish)


South end of 33 looking north(ish)

Beautiful spot you got there. Looks like it was pretty smooth before but should be nice now. Will you plant a different kind of grass or what?

It was a lot rougher than it looked - pigs have the place torn all to hell. I'm not down there enough anymore to keep them in check. Has a slight rise in it - hard to tell in the pictures but a small roller about 1/4 down from the north end that I will try to grade down some but nothing major.

Txagfisher,

Thanks for posting, looks good. Can you post what you've used so far from an implement standpoint? Disk?

Thanks,
Bill

fiftynineSC wrote:Txagfisher,

Thanks for posting, looks good. Can you post what you've used so far from an implement standpoint? Disk?

Thanks,
Bill

Luckily, we do quite a bit of work out there and I we do many acres of food plots so we have all the needed equipment. We burned a JD6320 to the ground last year when it had an electrical fire and now have a new 6105M. I am using an 8' Frontier disc setup that I have welded some grizzly bars into to keep them from clogging up with the sticky black farmland that covers parts of the property. I'll use a box blade to grade it and put a drag behind that to smooth it off. I don't intend to plant anything, I will just let the native grass grow back over it the keep it mowed.

Excellent, thanks for the quick response. Slick idea on the bars. As far as grading with the box blade, will that handle any of the bigger humps that you might come across? I used to live on a 2200' strip, but it had already been constructed so it was mostly maintenance. Lot of mowing! It was never seeded either, just let the Bermuda fill in. Just keeping it mowed short did most of it, but we did have to control Dallas grass. Amazing how bumpy that bunch grass can be if you don't control it.

Bill

It really won't move that much earth, I can change the severity of it some, but you would need a dozer to make it perfect. But, this airlplane doesn't need perfect!

You got that right! I'm editorializing, but few airplanes need that much in ways of runway (condition). Pretty much any GA airplane can be operated off a good farmer's gravel road. One of the places I grew up near is 1200' and unplowed pasture land with a steep grade. The owners have been operating a surprising variety of TW and Tricycle gear out of there for 25 years. None of them specialized bush-bouncer type airplanes.

By the looks of your place and your plane....you'll be golden. Good work.

Bill

With the rain you get there, it would be nice to hire a grader to put a six inch crown on it. If getting out at any particular time is not an objective, it wouldn't matter so much.

Looks good so far - I don't recall Bermuda grass needing much care. Do know the roots can go down further than my arm could reach when Mom wanted a small flower plot.

My haunting concern is: What about Pigs II?

contactflying wrote:With the rain you get there, it would be nice to hire a grader to put a six inch crown on it. If getting out at any particular time is not an objective, it wouldn't matter so much.

I was thinking the same thing. Good drainage will make it usable more of the time. Poor drainage can make it too soggy for days and days.

Cary

Feral hogs have done plenty of damage to local airfields in recent years. We learned the hard way ($$$$$; money spent on traps, weapons, accessories, lost forage and stocking ratio potential, etc) the only real way to fix the problem is fence them out. Anything else you do is chasing your tail. You will never recover the money the hog damage costs you by trying to book hunts, etc. I share this only because this is the conclusion we came to as a result of our hard earned experience over a 10 year period.

Otherwise, you have a great place to put an airfield! Best of luck with it!

We typically don't get much rain - this year being the exception of course. We are probably only 50 miles or so NW of Houston as a crow flies, but in a little valley that seems to miss most of the rain.

As far as the pigs go, we need a fly in and everyone bring a rifle!

My guess would be there are about a dozen left, but one is at least 300lbs. I just need time to not be working down there so I can take them out.

Hmm... I'm about 50 miles SW of Houston. Have gun and Cub, will travel.

Beautiful looking place. Looks like it already was a cub paradise, now with the 'proper' strip maybe paradise for many more than just cubs.
Would be a great time to buddy up with a local aggie. 45 seconds would get all the bermuda grass seed down to make it a quarter mile long putting green. Done in Mohawk or Tiff it would be astonishing, and the way bermuda crawls, rain would be even less of a concern...

Take care, another 'have gun/cub will travel' Rob

Rob, where about are you located? Maybe the three of us can set something up.

Hi TxAgfisher,

PM sent

Went and checked on it today - damn grass is growing back already with all this rain. I disced it again and I'll probably fly down in two weeks and land in the field and try to get it graded.

Well, I disced and graded it yesterday... Still too much grass in it to be smoothed out by any means. Hopefully ripping the grass with the box blade will take its toll and I can disc it again in a few weeks and try again. But, got the maiden voyage in 22U to the ranch under my belt on Friday the 13th no less!

Nice airstrip! I've been working on an airstrip over the last year as well so I know how much that first landing means.

We have another connection as well. My A&P knows I'm always looking for a more capable A/C and he kept telling me about this Maule for sale by a widow .. You know the rest of the story. You put a down payment on it the day of or day before I finally checked it out. Doubt you'll need the skis down there! Enjoy! I hope it's working well for you!