Good morning gents, our private grass strip airport requires some TLC. It all started when my grandpa Harry moved up to Minnesota. When he moved here he left the airport and 185 behind for my uncle to take care of. He did a good job of taking care of the strip itself and his portion of the property but without anyone using our portion of the property it quickly turned into what it is now.

I plan on traveling back down to Texas as soon as I can. During that trip, I would like to get the ball rolling on a few things.
The first thing that immediately grabs my attention is that our airport is placed in the wrong spot! Google maps depicts the runway as the street that the airport is on and displays the airport as being a mile away from where it is (insert joke about the non-precision approach here) ForeFlight my new GTN and the paper sectionals also show it in the wrong spot. How would I go about getting this corrected?

The second thing that I would like to start getting information about is resurfacing or making the bumps go away on the runway and taxiways. When I was there a few months ago, it was bumpy enough for me to tell my buddy to drive four hours instead of flying over in his Skywagon. I have heard many ideas on how to fix it ranging from driving up and down the runway with the pickup truck to calling the county and having them use their industrial graders and rollers when they resurface the dirt roads again which will never happen because the dirt roads have not been resurfaced since the last time my 185 flew. We are also in need of a new mower… Ours is run on the farm tractors by using their PTO system (it just occurred to me that I am not a farmer/rancher and have almost no idea how to not sound stupid asking about this)
I will be able to provide more information on this topic when I am down there next. All I know is that if I wanted to I could stick my hand through the rust holes in the housing.

What I will be doing is talking to the owners of some private strips (looking at you Skydive Houston) and inquiring about what they do to care for their grass runways. And I will also try talking to the Texas A&M extension and seeing what they can do for me. That leaves me with a question for you guys. If you think of anything that might make my job of refurbishing the little grass strip a little easier, could you share?

Photos to come,
Ryan

Where in TX is property located? If it reasonably close to TX Hill Country would love to help restore. Ex highway contractor here; very knowledgeable with grading and resurfacing. Probably just need money to rent equipment. Email direct [email protected]

Part of the issue will be, what is the strip, really? Grass, gravel, sand, combination, etc., will make a difference. My friend Russ who has his little Reed International northeast of Fort Collins has a combination of materials, and he mows it with his cranky old tractor dragging a well used mower and rolls it with an old roller he drags behind the same cranky old tractor. If it gets too wet, he doesn't go onto it with anything--even an ATV will dent it, and a car will rut it. But leave it a few days until it's damp, since it has pretty good drainage, and he can roll it again. He doesn't have to mow often (basically pretty dry area). But he does roll it a few times in the summer, although I don't know how often that actually is. It makes for a nice, hard surface that just about any airplane can land on, with enough grass to keep the dust in check.

Cary

I can't speak for using graders and heavy equipment, but, a lot can be done using a drag and a 4WD and taking a little time. Below is a small strip in the Sierras that we put in using a 4wd and a drag consisting of a heavy 16 ft beam (GLB or engineered beams are the heaviest). In two days we had aircraft landing in the 800 ft that we cleared, though a grader will take care of the remaining 1,200 ft. By dragging in a circular pattern, instead of up and down the runway, you avoid washboarding, and the heavy beam can knock down humps and fill valleys, as well as uproot small bushes. This simple approach may be all you need to remove the bumps and be able to land until you get heavier equipment if needed.

I've used a heavy drag on another strip in the California high desert, and had the same results. Just a thought if want to keep it simple initially.



You can see here the circular pattern on the edge of the strip I was referring to


Getting ready to finish dragging the taxiway, it's already in use.


A simple drag can yield good results in a short amount of time. All dependent on type of soil and cover.

Thanks for the tips! I'll be heading down later today and I'll try to get some photos up.

flyingjack wrote:Where in TX is property located?

We are down about an hour drive south of San Antonio off of 35. I'll send you an email in a little bit!

Cary wrote:Part of the issue will be, what is the strip, really? Grass, gravel, sand, combination, etc., will make a difference.

Cary

It is a grass strip. Last time I kicked the dirt it appeared to be type of sandy soil. Here is a pic from a while ago.

Zenithguy wrote:I can't speak for using graders and heavy equipment, but, a lot can be done using a drag and a 4WD and taking a little time.

I have never seen it done like that before. I will look into it!

Ryan

in the northeast, most guys roll there grass runways just as there 75% dry from winter. if you have a wet season, i would suggest vibratory rolling it when it is still damp.
Up here with the frost we get (3-4ft) it makes a huge difference and makes bumpy strips smooth.

I agree with Slant buggy, Find the largest vibrating roller you can rent and spend a few days running up and down the runway.

I acquired a 10 ton roller and used it to smooth out my runway after it had not been rolled in 7 years, I have rolled the runway about 6 times in the past 2 years, it is now one of the smoothest turf runways I have ever flown off of. I plan to roll it twice a year to keep it this way.

flyingjack wrote:Where in TX is property located? If it reasonably close to TX Hill Country would love to help restore. Ex highway contractor here; very knowledgeable with grading and resurfacing. Probably just need money to rent equipment. Email direct [email protected]

Home run!

I think you hit the jackpot Ryan.

I'm pretty close and just built my 1000' strip this year - would love to come check it out! What's the identifier?

78TA

robw56 wrote:78TA

That's us!

Just a quick fyi, the airport is private use only and requires permission to land at. I can't give that permission to anyone for at least another year, besides we are doing some work on the runway now so you guys can land there!

Also wanted to inform you guys that during my latest trip to Texas I was able to make some progress on the hanger restoration and familiarize myself with the tractor. I'm only a handful of steps away from a restored airplane and a refurbished airport to call home.

pilotryan wrote:

robw56 wrote:78TA

That's us!

Just a quick fyi, the airport is private use only and requires permission to land at. I can't give that permission to anyone for at least another year, besides we are doing some work on the runway now so you guys can land there!

Also wanted to inform you guys that during my latest trip to Texas I was able to make some progress on the hanger restoration and familiarize myself with the tractor. I'm only a handful of steps away from a restored airplane and a refurbished airport to call home.

Cool. I wish you would have said so during the 185 removal....im in the Pearsall, Dilley, Pleasanton area all the time. I'm that asshole that's always drilling the up the countryside and clogging your roads with truck traffic.

All seriousness....lots of experience in that area making dirt smooth. You can go little or big, dealers choice. Congratulations again.

Bill

fiftynineSC wrote:Cool. I wish you would have said so during the 185 removal....im in the Pearsall, Dilley, Pleasanton area all the time. I'm that asshole that's always drilling the up the countryside and clogging your roads with truck traffic.

All seriousness....lots of experience in that area making dirt smooth. You can go little or big, dealers choice. Congratulations again.

Bill

Small world! Never guessed anyone on here would know where I am. Next time the 185 flies I'll try and get a fly-in put together.