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Need help with airstrip construction

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Need help with airstrip construction

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Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
buzzlatka offline
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For whatever it is worth, Illinois requires at total of 140 feet clear of obstacles from side to side. I am on the prairie and built my grass strip 70 feet wide and admit to having been cose to both sides of it at one time or another in tough crosswinds. I would guess that with your tree situation it might be more challenging at times. This thought coming from a flatlander that thinks a 1000 foot strip is short.
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I am building one in nor cal. I know that some folks think that nor cal is anything north of Bakersfield. We are 40 miles south of the Oregon border.

In siskiyou county they require that you have at least 200 acres and get a use permit for the airport. I have 120 acres and screw the pemit. I will not be ofering services at my landing strip so I do not feel that it is an airport.

100 ft clear of centerline is plenty and your length sounds great.

BUILD IT AND WE WILL COME

Tim
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Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sounds like you already have it figured out. I wouldn't try to comply with "airport" regulations. I have no idea how you might limit liability of other people using your strip though. I regularly fly into and out of crop duster strips that are much smaller than you describe. Down south here if you can fit it in and have the property owners permission, then you have a strip. At least for dry fertilizer anyway. I'm sure there are regulations, but we try the three mouse rule. See, hear and speak no evil. Just make sure if your insured, it allows you to land there.
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Make sure you put X's at the end of the runways and make sure everyone knows that they 'don't' have permission to land there - that should help to shield you from some of your liability concerns.
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On my private strip, 2WY3, here in Wyoming I hardly ever have a uninvited person drop in, The X thing is a good idea altho I don't know how much it will limit liability. At least in court I can say" I told ya so" Lawsuits are few and far between in Wyo, here we just take the whinners and feed them to the bears, the darn things hate the taste of lawyers though.. <G>
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I used 600ft of my hayfield as a strip in Oregon's Willamette valley and was advised by OR Aeronautics to not mark an X or R or windsock so therefore it was not an identifyable strip and thus salvage rights are yours if someone comes in and messes up.
There are a number of potential landing sites on some of those Delta islands in the dry beds among the bushes, in fact theres a barge out there that is awfully tempting. Many of the landing sites around are narrower than 100ft though that would be nice. The wheel track available at Calistoga airstrip before it was closed was 14ft wide and nobody went off the side. You could blade up a raised 20ft strip and get earlier spring use and later winter use.
You won't need a sock as the water all around suffices.
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Barge? Carrier landings anyone? Sounds ballsy. How long is a barge anyway?
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deltet
Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Here's a pretty good piece of reading from our Texas Dept. of Trans.

ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-inf ... strips.pdf
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Barges can be 40 to 400ft, I can't find it on earthmap so will look next time over the Delta. I did find your proposed strip, looks good though a west crosswind will be significant at the wrong time of day.
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Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Looks like a dood drag would do it good yo smooth it out a bit.

Tim
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Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:47 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Last edited by buzzlatka on Mon Dec 28, 2009 9:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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buzzlatka wrote:Problem is that this runway my be at the limits of my 170.


At the end of the strip, build a jump.
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Half a century spent proving “it is better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”

From the looks of the photo, there is farming on the other side of the channel. They probably do there plowing and discing in the late summer when the ground is the dryest.

Maybe get one of the farmers to disk up the place, pull a land plane then plant grass.

Tim
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zane wrote:
buzzlatka wrote:Problem is that this runway my be at the limits of my 170.


At the end of the strip, build a jump.


My very first ever airplane ride was in a 170B off a strip with a jump at the end... I'll never forget that one!!! :lol:
JH
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God put me here to accomplish a certain amount of things...right now I'm so far behind, I'll never die!!

I am in the process of getting an approved strip, but I am within a Class D airspace. It is getting to be quite a hastle. Fill out form FAA form 7480 and they should approve your strip and put it on the map. This should be quite easy to do if you are not in any other airspace. At one time after 9-11 the FAA made every plane fly in our out of an approved airstrip. They have relaxed this rule now.
Mine was declined until I get a Letter of Agreement from the local Class D airport. They are dragging their feet because they dont want to do it, but I dont think they have a choice. This has been going on since Feb. They then have to submit the LOA to the upper folks at FAA for approval. Then I should get an approved airstrip. If it is declined, I just go on up the ladder to someone else. Everybody tells me they cant tell you that you cant land on your own private land. Then since I am in the city limits, I have to get a permit from them, but my buddy is the Mayor so that wont be a problem.
On the form 7480 you can choose the strip to be private or public. Mine will be private for me and guests. The guests are required to read the LOA before using the strip. All the LOA does it tells radio frequencys and patterns and directions to fly in and out so not to get in the other airports way. I am near Tulsa.
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