New runway for our club

[TiredIronGRB]

For several years our club's (Johnson City Radio Controllers) runway has been in horrible condition because due to settling of the former landfill surface.
We have started work on it and you can follow the progress on our forum or refresh your browser to see updated pictures every five minutes.

[Beeg]

New runways are good!

Our club is getting ready to finally change our runway surface. We wore out our first fabric runway a few years ago and when we put down our second fabric covering the contractor put down the wrong base material and it's been a disaster ever since since we are located on a detention pond area and used to get severe floods which undercut the base material. The county has since dug around our area so we shouldn't get the severe flooding we've had in the past but fabric, which is better than nothing takes regular maintenance and prop strikes really tear it up.
So, since we can't put petroleum products down (asphalt) and concrete is very expensive we researched poly pavement options which are very cost effective. Of the polymer based materials we researched it was determined that "Gorilla-Snot" is our best options. Some poly pavement companies just get terrible reviews but Gorilla Snot which is used by the military gets the best reviews. Hope to have our new runway by late summer.

https://www.soilworks.com/products-and-services/gorilla-snot.aspx

BB

[TiredIronGRB]

Here's a pic from last year where you can see the humps in the old runway.

[Beeg]

That's a big hump. Are y'all going with fabric?

[TiredIronGRB]

That's a big hump. Are y'all going with fabric?

Pavement

[Beeg]

Wish we could go pavement....

[TiredIronGRB]

Wish we could go pavement....

I'm a grass man myself, I mostly fly at the house.

[bradl4648]

Very nice I fly off pavement now and just love it. Flying off grass has so many limitations its not funny and no small wheels either. Glad to see everything working out for you guys happy landings!

[TiredIronGRB]

Very nice I fly off pavement now and just love it. Flying off grass has so many limitations its not funny and no small wheels either. Glad to see everything working out for you guys happy landings!

I fly planes with 1" wheels on my grass ;)

[F106DeltaDart]

I fly planes with 1" wheels on my grass ;)

That is an impressive accomplishment! I know grass would rip the wheels out of a few of my jets, particularly my 70mm F-104. The new runway is looking good though!

[TiredIronGRB]

Still waiting on the pavers...

[wvrailfan]

New runways are good!

Our club is getting ready to finally change our runway surface. We wore out our first fabric runway a few years ago and when we put down our second fabric covering the contractor put down the wrong base material and it's been a disaster ever since since we are located on a detention pond area and used to get severe floods which undercut the base material. The county has since dug around our area so we shouldn't get the severe flooding we've had in the past but fabric, which is better than nothing takes regular maintenance and prop strikes really tear it up.
So, since we can't put petroleum products down (asphalt) and concrete is very expensive we researched poly pavement options which are very cost effective. Of the polymer based materials we researched it was determined that "Gorilla-Snot" is our best options. Some poly pavement companies just get terrible reviews but Gorilla Snot which is used by the military gets the best reviews. Hope to have our new runway by late summer.

https://www.soilworks.com/products-and-services/gorilla-snot.aspx

BB

So if I understand their site, the Gorilla Snot is basically a glue that you spray on existing dirt or gravel to seal and hold it in place. Is this about correct?

[Beeg]

So if I understand their site, the Gorilla Snot is basically a glue that you spray on existing dirt or gravel to seal and hold it in place. Is this about correct?

Pretty much. If you want high compression for trucks and full size runways you can till the mixture in the top 6" or so. If you just need dust control or light load capability you can just spray it on top. The cool part is if the surface gets damaged you can take a 5gal. bucket and mix up a "mortar" which is self leveling and repair any cracks, pot holes or other damage.
We've convinced out local county into doing the work and they are suppose to do the job in about two weeks. I'll try to get pictures and video along with details. Based on the area we want done it will take about 2 to 2 1/2 containers of the stuff which run about $1,100 each. Way cheaper than concrete or asphalt and not much more than the fabric we currently have. They say the surface will be smooth like "glass" which has a few folks concerned about stopping without brakes. As cheap as it is we may put the stuff down over a large area and just "paint" the primary runway as it will also abate weeds and such so they say but Texas grass and weeds are voracious.
There is another company that sells a similar polymer based product that is a top coat in either white or black and adds texture if we don't like the smooth "natural" earth color.

[wvrailfan]

Keep us informed, this sounds interesting. I am curious as to how long it will last. We have all four seasons here, often below zero in the winter and in the 90s to 100s in August, with about 40 inches total precipitation, some in the form of snow of course, in a year.

What size area are you covering?

[Beeg]

The "main" runway will be 75x500-600 and we are adding a 300ft crosswind runway. May cover a lot larger area. We may even do our parking lot and the extra area we have for Control line and stuff. They say the runway will be good for about 10 years with an annual maintenance. I'm assuming that means a light top spray once a year but this is all new so we will see. If it works out good I can see this being the next new thing in RC runways for a reasonable cost. Since they say it stays flexible I would imagine it may do well with winter/summer heaving but again it's very simple to patch cracks and stuff with a bucket of the juice and some dirt. Here in Houston we get A LOT of rain and the clay type soil does heave some with the variance in moisture. Time will tell!

[Kloverzero]

Very, VERY interested Beeg. Our club has been dabbling with the geo-tex idea, but as has been said, prop strikes kill it, and we have plenty of "Not so great" landers in our club!! I will be watching for progress!!

[Kloverzero]

I also wonder how it would work out putting this stuff over fabric...hmmmmmmm

[quitcherbitchen]

Interesting info here. I will try and forward all this info to my club. Thanks for sharing.

[Beeg]

We finally have the club, county, and material supplier all singing off the same sheet of music. We will be pulling our GeoTex runway and staples tomorrow and work should commence Monday or Tuesday.
Our club president decided to go with this product and company. http://envirotechservices.com/dust-c...stabilization/

The county insisted on doing the dirt work as this is sort of a test project for them to see how the full preparation, application and final product ends up. Could be a great thing for them saving a small fortune on their county roads, walkways and yards. This was awesome as it will save us the cost of renting the equipment and/or hiring a contractor.

A representative from Evirotech also insisted in on being directly involved and supervising the soil preparation and application of their product.

Here's to hoping this system will be a super positive and economical solution for model airplane runways! As it stands, without the cost of the dirt work it will cost us about $7,000 for the material. I'll let you all know the dimensions of the runway area as the club wants to include a new crosswind runway with this project.

I hope to get at least photos and maybe some video of the process and will definitely get photos of finished project.

[MikeT]

Pretty much. If you want high compression for trucks and full size runways you can till the mixture in the top 6" or so. If you just need dust control or light load capability you can just spray it on top. The cool part is if the surface gets damaged you can take a 5gal. bucket and mix up a "mortar" which is self leveling and repair any cracks, pot holes or other damage.
We've convinced out local county into doing the work and they are suppose to do the job in about two weeks. I'll try to get pictures and video along with details. Based on the area we want done it will take about 2 to 2 1/2 containers of the stuff which run about $1,100 each. Way cheaper than concrete or asphalt and not much more than the fabric we currently have. They say the surface will be smooth like "glass" which has a few folks concerned about stopping without brakes. As cheap as it is we may put the stuff down over a large area and just "paint" the primary runway as it will also abate weeds and such so they say but Texas grass and weeds are voracious.
There is another company that sells a similar polymer based product that is a top coat in either white or black and adds texture if we don't like the smooth "natural" earth color.

Keep us posted on it. I've been researching this for use on our dirt parking lot and screening runoff around our asphalt runway.

Mike