Flying Site Assistance
- Joe Beshar
Coordinator, Eastern Region, Districts I–VI 198 Merritt Dr. Oradell, NJ 07649 Tel: (201) 261-1281 Fax: (201) 261-0223 Email: [email protected]
- Wes De Cou
Coordinator, Western Region, Districts VII–XI 202 W. Desert Flower Ln. Phoenix, AZ 85045 Voice: (480) 460-9466 Cell: (480) 296-9515 Fax: (480) 460-9434 Email: [email protected]
Finding—Preserving—Maintaining
HELLO, DOLLY!
At the 2004 AMA Homecoming in Muncie, Indiana, I spent some time speaking with Dolly Wischer, a devoted AMA supporter.
At past gatherings, as at the Homecoming, Dolly always attends with a supply of stuffed bears that she herself cuts and sews. Dolly drives to Muncie from Wisconsin by herself; her husband Bob—one of the most prolific scale builders and competitors in aeromodeling—has passed away, leaving Dolly a widow. While Bob was alive, she always accompanied him and helped with his modeling activities. Dolly brings a supply of stuffed bears, sells them at model gatherings, and donates the proceeds to AMA. She is a genuine AMA supporter.
During my conversation with Dolly, she said it is becoming difficult to get the fur materials. If you have an excess or worn-out fur coat or pieces of fur for which you have no further use, please consider donating them to Dolly for this worthwhile project. To do so, contact Jay Mealey at AMA Headquarters: [email protected]; Tel: (765) 287-1256, ext. 270. Jay will make arrangements for the donation.
I am often asked about the use of geotextile fabric — the woven product made by Amoco — and its application as a base for constructing a field runway. I know of no better way to describe the method than by sharing an actual successful experience.
I learned that the Blount County Modelers Association (BCMA) of Knoxville, Tennessee, used the material in building its runway. Paul McAdams, the club president, outlined the experience, which you will find informative.
The photos display views during the application; additional photos can be seen on the club’s website: www.bcmarc.com.
BCMA runway project
BCMA flies from a runway built on reclaimed land at the Alcoa City/Blount County landfill in eastern Tennessee. Because our field is on a landfill dome of clay, we have not had much success in getting a grass runway to grow.
As a club, we were trying to decide the best course of action: sod the entire runway or have a blacktop runway put down. Blacktop was cost-prohibitive, and there was always the possibility that the sod would die.
One of the club members mentioned a club in South Florida that had used a woven-material mat that came in rolls and was laid down with five-inch staples. This idea seemed to be the best fit for our club. We might have to move to another part of the landfill within the next five years, and we could always take the mat up and move it with us.
Two club members were instrumental in getting our runway project off the ground. Craig Teffeteller and Bill Webb did the legwork. They found another club in South Florida that had put a mat down, and from there Craig found a dealer in Nashville, Tennessee — Midwest Construction Products, Tel: (615) 227-5422 — that could supply us with the material at a reasonable cost.
The material, made by Amoco, is a woven product used in road construction as an underlayment. There are different grades of the product, and we recommend that any club thinking of using this should purchase the best grade it can afford.
We purchased four rolls. One roll of Amoco 2006 was for our taxiways. This roll was 12.5 x 360-foot and cost $320. The other three were Amoco 2019 and come in 15 x 300-foot rolls costing $550 apiece. We purchased 8,000 staples in boxes of 1,000 at a cost of $35 each. The total cost of the project was $2,370.
The taxiways were laid down in 25-foot lengths and the main runway was then laid down over the end of the taxiways. We laid down the first roll of the runway so that one edge overlapped the taxiways and then stapled the three outside edges with 6 x 1-inch staples driven into the clay. The second roll was placed overlapping the first roll's inside seam by four inches and then stapled. We did the same with the third roll.
Our ground preparation was to shave the grass as close as possible with a lawnmower. In all, it took approximately three days over the course of a week with 15 people to install the runway system. Because we were attempting to drive the staples into hard-packed clay, we had to get quite a bit of water down to soften the ground first. We used rubber mallets to pound the staples in.
When using this product, consider that because it is a woven material, it will tear from propeller cuts or if a lawnmower is driven over it with the blade engaged. The only other concern is with turbine jets, because they will burn holes in the material.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
