The International Cessna^® 170 Association

I need some ideas on estimating the cost of building a landing strip. See grid B-3 (lower right quadrant) on the referenced engineering drawing. If for some reason you can't open the Acrobat file from here, PM me and I'll email you a copy.

Thanks, Miles

http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/bc/46025b1c/bc ... DB_xs5qi7N

Are you certain that's a valid link, Miles? Won't open.

gahorn wrote:Are you certain that's a valid link, Miles? Won't open.

I was hoping the direct link would be easiest, but if it doesn't work try the following:

1) Go to http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/cessna170bdriver

2) Click on TIC170Apublic

2) Click on Engineer's Plans

Miles

Miles,
Drawings for decorating your Christmas tree, do you have a separate drawers for your different colored sox?

I don't see mention of grooving the runway in your plan, so you had better put extra emphisis, during your Captain Claus's bi-annual review, on landing in the touchdown zone, early use of reverse deer exhaust gas thrust and anti-lock hoof braking.




Above is a very poor copy of Mile's roof top runway plan, I am sorry about the quality. What Miles is looking for is a bid with a completion deadline of Midnight PST December 25th.

Sorry to be butting in here Miles but I saw an opportunity to demonstrate the value on hiring a General Contractor to help with your project.

The link comes up different every time I go there, for some reason. I guess the best way is to do the 3-step procedure I outlined. I had no idea this would get to be so difficult!

Miles

You have to much time on your hands!! I like it.

Where you planning your airstrip for, Miles- there in T'achapee? At your home place?

Eric

mrpibb wrote:You have to much time on your hands!! I like it.

Actually, I don't have ENOUGH time on my hands! Anyway, I'm not that creative, I just enjoy forwarding things like this along for others to enjoy.

zero.one.victor wrote:Where you planning your airstrip for, Miles- there in T'achapee? At your home place?

Eric,
I gather from your lack of emoticons that you are asking a serious question, and you haven't seen the drawing yet? My "home place" here is 0.19 acres and is more or less square with a house in the middle. How big would the wings and engine have to be...

I were to build a strip, California wouldn't be the place I'd do it. They are waaaay too proud of their real estate here for a couple of nine-to-fivers like Karen and myself to pull it off. Now if the expected job offer to relocate to Tennessee comes through, that would be a different story....

Miles

I am in North Mississippi, Tupelo to be exact. (TUP) What part of TN might you be going? Also I thought I reconized those mountains in your Pagosa Springs picture. I used to live there, nice place. And didn't you mention that you used to live in MS. I have a couple of friends with grass strips in TN.
My dream is to have my own strip and a live-in hanger for a home. As far as cost goes on building a strip, I have no idea. But, it would depend on the local and ground prep. There are many places in North Miss. and west central TN. where all you might have to do is cut the grass. There is a lot of delta and prairie land around here.

I guess the link leads to a Xmas gag? I don't usually click links, I have really slow dial-up internet service and it takes too long to download video's, even to download pics/graphics, so unless it's something I'm really eager to see I just pass. They don't have DSL available where I live, the best the server could do was a "Blue Streak" accelerator program for $2 a month extra that speeds up downloading, but degrades graphics in order to do it. If it's something I really want to see I can disable the blue streak, then it's the old hurry up and wait deal again.

Eric

I suspect that most of us dream of our own place with a strip on it. I have spent too much time there myself. At any rate, it would be fun to talk with a golf course contractor to see what all they do. Fairways are often 4 or 5 hundred yards. How do they do it. I have heard they lay in gravel, then lime then dirt on top. I'm sure it is overkill but wouldn't it be fun to land on a fairway all the time.

Bill

Bill Rusk wrote:I suspect that most of us dream of our own place with a strip on it. I have spent too much time there myself. At any rate, it would be fun to talk with a golf course contractor to see what all they do. Fairways are often 4 or 5 hundred yards. How do they do it. I have heard they lay in gravel, then lime then dirt on top. I'm sure it is overkill but wouldn't it be fun to land on a fairway all the time.

Bill

When I built mine before I left Tennessee in 1990, I had the county extension agent come out to look at it. He came up with a drainage plan (for free). The soil was such that all I had the contractor do was to remove the topsoil, set it aside, then install the drain tiles and level the subsoil, then replace the topsoil. I haven't landed on it in over 15 years, but I walked it about a month ago, and it seems to be in as good shape as when I left it.

I am now visiting with my Dad who lives at 97FL, and I think now, rather than build my own, I'd buy into a residential airpark, as I think I'd enjoy the company of neighbors with the common bond of aviation, not to mention the financial and physical help with maintenance, and the political clout to fight encroachment.

Miles

A private airstrip is nice to have at your place. We put in an airstrip on our Idaho ranch about 2 years ago. A task that seemed so easy took about 1 year. We have perhaps 6 neighbors within a five mile radius so we expected no problems. We needed to obtain a special use permit from the county which took about 6 months to get though the system, mostly due to procedual requirements. Some of the major items that came up during the process was working with the power company on setbacks and safety issues. The time frame included a period for protesting the decision. Once we had the go ahead from the county we used a JD 850 dozer, grader and box blade to work the ground put in a few culverts, then seeded it good with pasture grass. The strip turned out well and we started using it about a year after we filed for the special use permit. We also had to file paper work with the FAA - they need to do an airspace study to make sure we did not interfere with any instrument approaches, etc. It took the FAA about 3 months to do the study and about a year afterwards they provided us with an official ID - 17ID. The strip was designed using the FAA handbook on airport design, for setbacks, recommended widths etc.

During this process the President took some time off and camped out about 20 miles from here for a few days. The FAA put a TFR around his temporary residence which included our place. Since we were not "official" yet, we had more than a few times where F16s were lottering overhead during his visit.

I've built two strips. One was a 5200' paved strip on my employer's ranch. We spent a year and a half grubbing, grading, providing drainage, etc. etc. Then hired a paving company to pave and mark it with center stripes. (Makes low viz takeoffs much easier!) Built a 10' high game-proof fence around it. (Over 12,000' of fence supported by 8" X 14' creosoted poles set in holes drilled by water-drilling rigs every ten feet apart. 1200 holes/poles! Dyess AFB didn't have a security fence as good.) It had 350' X 350' turn-arounds/parking aprons at each end.
We never notified anyone. Just did it. Felt like it was his land, he'd do whatever he wanted with it.
The Air Force had a low-level route directly over it. Lots of F-4's and such would come over at a couple hundred feet,... bank...take a look....and go on. Abilene was only about 40 miles NE.
Had a Cherokee land there once. Got out. Took a stroll. The ranch foreman drove up the hill (it was built on top of a mesa. The fence was actually below the runway grade.) Asked him if he was OK. He said "Yep. Just takin' a break!"
The foreman gave him 10 minutes to get airborne or face walking the 40 miles to town and risk losing his plane.
The county commissioners asked if we "had a permit". They were told we didn't need a permit to perform a "paving test" on our own property. They made a threatening comment or so, before they realized that it was never claimed to be an airport, and the FAA was never told it was an airport,...therefore it wasn't an airport and they had no jurisdiction. But we sure used it for years to land the King Airs, the Hawkers, the twin and single Cessnas. Even had a 727 visit one time.
Ended up costing $1.2M. (Saved a bunch on fees, tho'.)

My 3500' grass runway at home was registered with the FAA but they could've cared less. It's directly under an IFR intersection and they issued an ID with nothing more than our submitting the info on their form. No other permits req'd by authorities in central TX.