Vic and I have been chatting recently about the need to roll the runway and decided that today was the day.
Our plan was that I would bring my mower/tractor to the field and use the small roller filled with concrete and Vic would use the Club mower/tractor and use the large club roller filled with water. I would do the first rolling work with the smaller roller and then Vic would come behind and do the final smooth job. Good Plan.......... Right?
Everything went according to plan and I began to roll with the small roller. The Club mower would not start, no matter what, so Vic went home to get his big mower/tractor while I rolled the runway with the small roller. I finished the work with the small roller and got the big roller out of the shed and began to fill it with water. When the roller was about half full of water, the water began to run out around the axle on one side. Upon closer examination, I found that the water containing roller was fractured (big time) around the axle and would not hold more than about 1/3 its normal capacity. Even this water ran out when the fracture reached the bottom of it's circuit.
When doing the initial rolling, I felt quite good as the ruts in the field caused by someone driving a dual wheeled truck down the runway were disappearing. However, the runway was so water logged that the small roller was putting small creases in the runway, but I did not worry about that since the large roller would smooth these out. NOT TO BE!
Long story short, we need to replace the large roller's water containing roller or purchase a new one. Vic and I agreed that as soon as the runway dries out a bit......... (seven to ten days without rain) we will need to roll it again. We are set to do that and Vic is going to stop by his local hardware dealer and get an idea of how to resolve the large roller problem.
The initial 50 feet of the south end of the runway's approach is pretty smooth now while the 40 to 50 feet closest to the road is too rough to roll smooth and in need of some "fill dirt and drag" to get started on its correction.
The north end of the runway is also in bad shape and in need of some fill dirt and drag work. We will have to address this as, perhaps, a work day significant task.
The sinking area of the paved runway continues to settle and unless we take some painful corrective action soon, will eventually crack and suddenly pose a major problem for our pilots.
We will address all this at both the officers meeting scheduled for this Saturday and the general meeting of the membership scheduled for 9:30 on January 15 just prior to the CHILI FLY! ~ Be there!
The best thing that happened this morning during all this was a mini-van rolled up with a pre-teen aged boy and girl and their dad. Seems the boy had received a "foamy" electric Super Cub for Christmas and they needed someone to fly it and introduce the boy to flying. After checking CG, control movement and direction and finding it all satisfactory, we walked out to the runway and I advanced the power and it tracked straight into the wind and climbed out like it knew what it was all about. We landed and made some trim adjustments (washed out a bit or right rudder and up elevator) and flew it again. The boy then took it over and eventually followed his dad's instructions (non-pilot) and flew it into the ground in what was an excellent spot landing, but not one that the pilot would have walked away from. We cleaned it up and tried it again (sans cowling and one wing strut) and the young pilot did much better. A trip to the hobby shop and all three of them will be happy once again.
A prospective new member whose primary interest is in helicopters also showed up and following some guidance said he would go ahead and submit his application for AMA membership and go to our web-site for club membership instructions.
So, it was a good day at the field, and as often happens, not exactly as planned, but still a good day.
The geezers are planning to fly tomorrow, so come on out.
JRM
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