Hi from French Island

[Mike Gearon]

Husky popped in today from Tyabb. 

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by Mike Gearon

[Mike Gearon]

Windsock. It’s pretty much a 02 20 runway and fairly good chance it’ll be a 10 to 15kn S to SW. I’m usually in the workshop/ hangar and happy to see pilots visit. I’m currently tiling the 120 sq m hangar floor. It’s my punishment for making 5mpa French island concrete. Okay until you decide to put in a hangar and want to paint the floor…too soft.... only solution is tiles 600x600 ceramic gray tiles..

 

You’ll want to be sorted as I’ve mentioned by the workshop. There is a 10ft wide area that’s smooth with undulations that timed right will pop you back in the air “surprise!” And you’ll patiently wait to as your aircraft lands a second time or go around. Indemnity… by reading this you accept it’s entirely your responsibility to ensure your safe arrival and departure and my runway could for instance have a big bull hole in it that causes all sorts of difficulties. (Bulls make these to impress the girls) 

 

I’ve discovered yesterday after many landings the teatree hides the early site picture on 20.  I came in at 55kn and down the teatree line then gentle right turn line up  with a total of about 150m from fence line to aircraft gently pulled up in a few more meters. It’s the bloody teatree and my neighbour wouldn’t take kindly to a chainsaw event. There is of course another 250m to 300m of downhill after the workshop. I’m just pushing my skill set for bush field landings. 
 

Windsock, finally got that 15kn windsock up yesterday and compared it to Actual. Pretty good. 10-12kn  gusting to 15-18kn  readable on the windsock. Only reason I was comfortable yesterday slightly pushing the limits on approach.

 

Aircraft pic. Surprised how much baggage one can fit in a Nynja for the Christmas gift run to mainland. Very well seat belt  strapped in and bungeed. Minimal weight in baggage area. Still…. Next year my wife can take more on the boat and I’ll fly with less! 
 

 

Edited December 26, 2021 by Mike Gearon

[Mike Gearon]

Strong easterly had me trying the unprepared paddock. Surprisingly easy. 
 

The dirt furrow was an ill advised attempt to peel back the grass and form a temporary summer runway. Grass just clumps under the grader blade and eventually stops tractor. I knew this… wishful thinking I’d get it to work. Will disc and grade at some point.

 

Loads of aircraft fly over. Will have to set an event at some stage

[facthunter]

  Get a very robust slasher and tilt it forwards to level the tufts. Over a period of time the surface will improve. Best it be a bit soft after rain. Stops the dust as well. Nev

[Mike Gearon]

 

11 minutes ago, facthunter said:

  Get a very robust slasher and tilt it forwards to level the tufts. Over a period of time the surface will improve. Best it be a bit soft after rain. Stops the dust as well. Nev

I have one. Why didn’t I think of that…Even better we have another pilot on the island putting in a runway. I’ve provided my discs to him and he has a good italian mulching mower. You have a good point. I could have borrowed this and not had a bloody great furrow in the way of landing. It’d just knock the tops down amd even fill in a few lows.

 

March/ April depending on season it’ll be cultivated north south and east west then my mate with the grader promises to make it beautiful.

 

I now know I can land in the unprepared paddock. Only did that with slight desperation today and I’d phoned Tyabb to confirm alternate of their east west grass was available if I’d needed it. 

[turboplanner]

14 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

Strong easterly had me trying the unprepared paddock. Surprisingly easy. 
 

The dirt furrow was an ill advised attempt to peel back the grass and form a temporary summer runway. Grass just clumps under the grader blade and eventually stops tractor. I knew this… wishful thinking I’d get it to work. Will disc and grade at some point.

 

Loads of aircraft fly over. Will have to set an event at some stage

FullSizeRender.mov

Grading is something you learn in time.

First adjustment is a big angle which turns the grader blade into a knife - about 30 to 45 degrees.

Second adjustment is to screw the top linkage out so the blade leans back making it a cutting edge rather than a dragging edge.

Third adjustment is the screw the adjustable lower linkage so the front end of your blade is lower and becomes a plowshare, start with 50 mm lower.

Third adjustment is to screw the rear jockey wheel down so the tyre starts to bulge but doesn't lift the front end of the blade off the ground. This stops the blade digging in and making a deep furrow.

 

Try it out in first gear somewhere other than the strip.

The blade should now be neatly slicing off the tufts and about 25 mm of dirt, leaving a flat surface behind it about 1/3 of the width of the blade if it was square to the cut (so 1800 mm blade = 600 mm cut.)

Drive a few metres in 1st gear so the blade has time to dig in and settle, showing a pattern of cut. The front end will be cutting the 25 mm depth and the rear section will be sweeping the tufts and dirt to one side.

Reverse back and move over (on the 25 mm groove side) to cut another groove with the cutting section of the blade just nicking about 1/2 the ridge of the forst groove. the blade will be sweeping the dirt over the first grove.  Sight the muffler on a fence post in the distance to get a straight line, then after looking down to get your cut just right sight a new position on the end fence. 

Keep repeating this until you have a couple of metres of test "strip". with a series of groove in it and clods and tufts sitting on top.

During this time you might be adjusting to cut better, screwing the wheel down to reduce the depth etc. 

There should be an even flow of cut material off the grader blade.

Having done this in one direction on the strip, say with your cutting edge on the left, you will finish up with a final groove on the left and a final windrow on the right - the material on the strip - tufts and clods has been shifted to the right. 

 

Next, turn around and grade from the opposite direction offsetting your first groove to about halfway between the outer two existing grooves. and grade across the other way you will now be cutting off the high part of the angled cuts you previously did and having to cop with a lot less tufts, your last cut tufts will now be rolling along the blade shaking out their dirt evenly and your blade will now be throwing some of the loose dirt into the low spots. 

 

Next, turn around again and if you've now shaved all the grass off, adjust the rear linkage to take most of the angle out of the blade. You'll still need maybe 10 mm otherwise you'll start to cut with the rear and of the blade and it'll pull the tractor off line.

 

Do the runs in this direction, then turn around and do them in the other direction.

 

By this time you may already have a flat test strip of nice soft earth where you can then screw the top linkage in to have the top of the blade in front of the bottom making it a dragging blade instead of cutting and you can drive up and down the strip busting the last of the clumps and letting the blade gradually fill in the low holes and sections.

 

If you're on blacksoil and the blade has pulled lumps out and your test strip looks like a dogs breakfast, you use the tractor tyres to squash the lumps and just do the process over and over until you get a reasonably flat top surface. The next rain will weld it all together.

 

Once you've done the test strip you'll know what it takes and what adjustments to make along the way, saving you a heap of time and getting a much better result on your airstrip.

 

 

[Mike Gearon]

Bloody hell. I’ve been farming and grading since 15 years old. This is a whole new level of experience. I’m really grateful for your taking the time on all this. 
 

Those east winds had me trying to grade it in and what you explain was what I’d hoped for. I have a Behrends heavy duty grader. It’s a big heavy bastard and it can dig in. It’s just the clumps on next run and yeah.. full angle and try to get them cleared.

 

 I fly for business and family reasons. Family health problems this last time. I can take the ferry or barge. It’s about 3 times quicker to fly and when I’m having family member health problem stress I fly better and arrive more relaxed. IMSAFE is of course relative to your own reactions to stress. Business stress large issue stuff runs me the other way. I don’t fly.

 

Seeing as you’ve gone to all that effort I’ve just taken pics. You can see the intention. Grade outward left and right from a Center. If it’d worked I’d have gradually sent it left and right with a say 10m Center and flown in on it until say March or rain and bring the piled and now more manageable material back. You can see the big pumps where it just piled under the grader and wouldn’t clear (on full tilt) particularly down coast side where the dandy soil grows bracken fern with all that tap root.

 

Hangar is next. I just today decided to put in a 17m wide hangar clear span with 12m depth and middle split raising door. That’ll take the Virus with 11m wing span I pick up,from Michael Coates in QLd soon. Maybe next week or so.

 

It will also take the Pipistrel Sinus in USA when I bring to Australia. Getting engineering spec done now for that 17m span. 
 

Pipistrel motor glider here with tundra tyres. It’s flex model goes from 15m 27:1 motor glider down to 12m span with winglets changed out. Still 23:1 glide and 115kn cruise 

 

 

[facthunter]

You are going to make a rod for your own back with that ground cover, if you aren't careful. The last thing you want is bare earth and clods. Bare earth means  weeds grow from seeds lying dormant with the competition removed, Every terrible thing known to man will spring up. . Whatever is there has proven it can be ground cover.   On a paddock strip don't fight nature . Work with it. Unless you intend to seal it from the start.  Nev

[turboplanner]

31 minutes ago, facthunter said:

You are going to make a rod for your own back with that ground cover, if you aren't careful. The last thing you want is bare earth and clods. Bare earth means  weeds grow from seeds lying dormant with the competition removed, Every terrible thing known to man will spring up. . Whatever is there has proven it can be ground cover.   On a paddock strip don't fight nature . Work with it. Unless you intend to seal it from the start.  Nev

That's what we have roundup for these days FH takes out everything. What you are looking at there is some gouging. By the time it's finished the clods should all be broken up and the dirt shaken out of the roots and a bed which can be sown with ryegrass of demeta fescue.

[facthunter]

I have plenty of experience with weedkillers and you can see what happens on the roadside where the council uses it. Opportunistic weeds spring up worse than the original.. Nev

[turboplanner]

31 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I have plenty of experience with weedkillers and you can see what happens on the roadside where the council uses it. Opportunistic weeds spring up worse than the original.. Nev

That’s the side of the road. You should be looking in crop paddocks. If a farmer is growing lucerne, pats, canola etc. he can’t afford weeds so the soil is sprayed before planting. Yes, if you fully plough at plough depth you will bring thistle seeds to the top, but the spray kills them. 

[onetrack]

You never place organic material into any road/airstrip base formation. Organic material, such as weeds, roots, leaves, branches, any pieces of wood placed into a soil formation that you require to be load-bearing, will decompose, then the formation will lose its constructed strength, and start to collapse in height, and in load-bearing ability.

 

All weeds and vegetation material must be graded off to one side of your required formation area - and if you really need the soil that goes with the root system of the material you've graded to one side, then you have to allow the weeds and organic material to die off, and then grade it lightly again to separate the organic material from the dirt you want to use.

Quite often, you need to hand-pick vegetation and organic material out of formation construction material - particularly tree roots/dead stump remnants.

 

Load-bearing formations such as roads and airstrips must be constructed out of a satisfactory blend of clay, sand and pebbly material, if available.

You need an adequate percentage of clay at a minimum level, and that percentage is around 15% of the total construction material. Pebbles are desirable to act as an additional binder medium, and a load-bearing medium - but are not 100% necessary.

You can range your formation material within the range of 85% clay with 15% sand, to 15% clay with 85% sand, and anywhere between these levels will make a satisfactory load-bearing road/airstrip base material that will provide good service when compacted.

Too high a clay content, and the surface becomes slippery when wet. Too high a sand and pebble content, and the material will not bind together, and it will become dusty when dry and break up under use.

You can often "blend" the various levels of soil materials, to make a good formation mix - particularly where there is a few centimetres of sand over clay or gravel. Pulling up the lower levels of the clay or gravel with the grader moldboard, and mixing it thoroughly with the top level of sandy material, often produces a good construction mix. You need to blend the mixture thoroughly by repeated steep-angled passes of the grader across the whole formation width.

 

Compaction and moisture levels are the next important factors. Moisture is required to obtain satisfactory compaction levels, as the moisture lubricates the particles of sand, clay and pebbles as they are being compacted, and makes them fit more tightly together, giving you a solid surface that resists water ingress. 

Compaction is required to a level that is well above the ground pressure being exerted on the formation by the equipment being used - and that includes ground pressure overloads caused by heavy landings.

 

Finally, the formation must be rounded in its cross-section profile (camber) to ensure adequate drainage, and to eliminate water pooling. The camber (centre to edge) should be around 2%, but 1% can suffice on high-clay-level material. 

Finally, shallow drains each side of the formation are needed to carry away the sizeable volumes of water that run off a formation in heavy rain - and those drains must run to lower levels again to ensure that all runoff water is disposed of, and doesn't lay around in the drains and thereby penetrate the sides of the formation and weaken the formation structure.

Naturally, those drains each side of a airstrip must be shallow, so that aircraft that accidentally depart the formation, can travel through the drains on their wheels without incurring major damage.

As a matter of opinion, I'd suggest your 3PL grader is wholly inadequate for airstrip construction, and a motor grader with its greater operating weight and power, bigger moldboard, and faster speed over the ground, with greater levelling accuracy, is the proper machine to use for this job.

 

(My qualifications? 55 years of earthmoving construction, dam excavation and construction, drainage and flood-mitigation work, along with the construction of many many kms of new roads, old road renovations, existing road widening, airstrip construction, catchment area construction. Trained military construction engineer [School of Military Engineering, Casula]. Qualified operator of dozens of types of plant and equipment, qualified equipment operator trainer).

[aro]

On the other hand, for our aircraft, grass strips where virtually the only thing they do is mow can be the nicest airfields to use. As long as they don't get so much use that the grass wears away.

[turboplanner]

OT, he has a choice; he can hire a grader and operator and ship it across to the island and have the strip graded in a day or two.

I haven't seen his property but French Island is part of the western Gippsland geology  which is swampy black soil with sand on the rises. From the above photo you can see part of what's been gouged is sand with bracken and what looks like the expected lumpy and sold black soil.

The black soil usually goes down about half a metre to a metre, and from there down to the unconfined aquifer is sticky clay, so no gravel or stones to mix.

It's as hard as a rock when its dry, so if you grade it smooth it makes a good track, stands up for a while after rain, but gets boggy in a wet year. You could fix that by bring in roadbase as you say - all a matter of dollars.

 

[Mike Gearon]

Onetrack and Turbo have huge experience. I’d suggest we extract this into a separate thread. How to construct an outback dirt/ gravel and/ or grass airstrip or combine into a thread I’ve not found.
 

I’ve been amazed reading this. I’m going to show to my new best mate pilot buddy on French Island. I respect his privacy so we will leave it at that until I chat about this huge depth of knowledge. It’s the type of thing we’ve spent months discussing and here’s major input! Way beyond what my experience by an order of magnitude. 
 

Note on organic matter. This is one of the big deals. A few points.

 

1. Roundup. Spray it and wait 4-6 weeks. I’d expect a tractor or motor grader to come in and deal with it without the clumping. I’d achieved this last summer with the natural summer die back and early disc  prep getting the soil into a nice state that wasn’t too powdery that it would just blow away or be unworkable like talcum powder. Seen that! Just couldn’t get the motor grader in due to his workload March when it was perfectly worked and ready. Try again 2022!

 

2. Just disc and/ or power cultivator early prep partial working January then when soil damp (March, April) get it prepped and graded and seeded before winter. 
 

2a. Runoff. Flat land definitely gentle camber and shallow drains each side that won’t upset a wayward aircraft..Examples… nose wheel that is put down still holding a crosswind correction and depart the runway (done that in Foxbat) or Tail wheel that’s mishandled (done that too) 

 

sloping land. Finally a benefit to slopes! Water is naturally shedding. Runway can have no camber. This is my case minus 2 dips that hold winter water. I’m planning on raising these 2 points at either runway end some 500mm with 300mm pipes  x 18m wide. Hazard created to sides of runway at pipe ends offset by them being near each runway end. To judge by An airport I know fairly well the accidents tend to end up mid runway after they’ve porpoised or diverged or whatever wayward plan they undertaken.

 

On both my property and my friends we have a large variation in material. Sandy soil down to say 150mm then clay. I also have basalt rock from cobblestone size to boulder, proper white sand for concrete mixing, black sandy soil and a gravel pit. Could in fact run a garden Center from my property. I’ll put pics here of the various materials. Also relates to what’s possible as Onetrack mentions. I’d never thought of stirring up the clay then mixing back in with the sandy soil. That’s big! During construction of my 1.6km driveway some 10 years ago we did this. Laid down the natural French island gravel/ clay mix with shallow drains each side and it was admittedly a little greasy. We then added 15 truck loads of white sand. Graded it in and had a very serviceable driveway ever since. To defend the Behrends grader blade it has an idle wheel stuck out the back some 1.2m. You then go forward some 2m to the rear wheels. It’s capable of 100kmh driveable surface. However that 3m or so never allows you to get rid of the gentle dips and up slopes. Motor grader is probably triple this and then add laser level and yeah. It can be done. Dips and rises…. They’ve put me back in the air a number of times when accidentally hit just right and I’m learning to ease the stick forward while still protecting the nose wheel and dealing with cross winds. That’s the reason for the bare paddock landing the other day as well as my mid strip upslope and downslope creating another layer of interesting factors.  Cross wind turbulence from the teatree and bush block coming in from the north. It’s been a huge learning experience last month or so. Makes me think I’m a better pilot until of course the next stuffed up landing on paved flat runway on a still day then we get an ego check. 
 

 That of course is what’s so nice about a Tail wheel landing. Just gently plant it down. (Within reason) 

 

I’m very grateful to you guys. Please visit when you get the chance. Bring a change of clothes for a stopover. I keep a plastic bag with overnight change, tooth brush and phone/ iPad charger in my aircraft now after being caught out with weather or new plans a few times. We have alternate of Tyabb or Tooradin as required and can get you over to island via aircraft, car barge or ferry. Everything but trains.

 

pics. Southrunway dip holds water and I’m hoping to both take away the south rise and fill the south dip with a pipe to carry water west. Same north end. 

boulders from property. 
south dam we extract gravel from and increase water reserve. Win and win.

Fire pit floor has natural basalt from the property. Off property are the Castlemaine slate and dromana granite. 
sandpit. Virtually unlimited supply.

 

 

[turboplanner]

25 minutes ago, Mike Gearon said:

Note on organic matter. This is one of the big deals. A few points.

OT is talking about a load bearing structure - and I agree that all organic matter needs to be removed before you start.

 

Mine is just cutting the tops off the bumps and filling small holes. By the time it's finished most of the organic material can dry out and blow away making a smoot section of paddock.

 

So two different ways to go. The grader with it's much longer wheelbase and blade bewteen the wheels will even out a lot more wave than the tractor if it's there.

 

 

[Mike Gearon]

Re organic… yeah. Particularly relevant on a commercial project and the gradual decay of matter. Not going to happen! Removed for sure.

 

This is a little more low key and if the runway in 3 to 6 months has dropped 10mm through decay it doesn’t matter. Relating to firmness  It’ll just gradually become more firm with time regardless.

 

I absolutely agree re cutting off the bump tops and a bit of filling. My east west should have had this treatment as temp solution. Learning….

 

 

[facthunter]

 You might have to drain  (ag pipes) some wet areas as well but don't overcapitalise this whole thing. Ag pipe will eventually get grass roots in it. Nev

[Mike Gearon]

Cross country yesterday to Lake Glenmaggie. Return landing. Both of them…60kn and 50kn would have seen it stay on the ground. The dust/ dirt you see is in fact what we’ve discussed. A smear of dirt a few weeks back that’s filled in the cow hoof prints. Laid down and smudged in (railway line smudge dragged behind tractor) and most importantly done when we’d had rain so it was moist and had a chance to stay down and not blow away. 
 

Note…I’m saying Easterly in video. It’s SSE. Still, I’ve found a bit of speed over the teatree is more stable.

 

 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Mike Gearon

[F10]

Looks good! Lake Glenmaggie, not far from my home field, West Sale! I recently flew over Valentina creek, about 3\4 miles east of Glenmaggie, turned overhead Soldiers hall where we attended a New Years gig, Contryside is looking like the UK with the good rains!

[peterg]

 flew over Valentina creek

 

Valencia?

[Mike Gearon]

Picked up the rans S21 kit at Tooradin. Then the barge blew an engine. We made it back on last trip for at least a month very lucky.

 

 Build will be in a B&B we haven’t finished as in pic here.

 

Pic of tv showing YouTube S21 build has island resident Steve to right of tv. I had no idea he was retired airforce and specialised in skins until he was watching the video with us. A great resource! Always amazed at our tiny 100 plus island population and their past lives. 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Mike Gearon
Residents “last lives” changed to past lives. Stupid autocorrect!

[Old Koreelah]

4 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

…I had no idea he was retired airforce and specialised in skins until he was watching the video with us. A great resource! Always amazed at our tiny 100 plus island population and their past lives.

 

 

Do the sums: in a small gathering of old farts there may be a thousand years of collective experience.
Worth listening to, if the young had the time and inclination.

[Blueadventures]

4 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

Picked up the rans S21 kit at Tooradin. Then the barge blew an engine. We made it back on last trip for at least a month very lucky.

 

 Build will be in a B&B we haven’t finished as in pic here.

 

Pic of tv showing YouTube S21 build has island resident Steve to right of tv. I had no idea he was retired airforce and specialised in skins until he was watching the video with us. A great resource! Always amazed at our tiny 100 plus island population and their past lives. 

Nice Mike

 

 

You should consider a thread on the build and start with a duplicate of this post.  Enjoy and look forward to the progress.  Cheers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mike Gearon]

On 5/5/2022 at 12:14 PM, Old Koreelah said:

Do the sums: in a small gathering of old farts there may be a thousand years of collective experience.
Worth listening to, if the young had the time and inclination.

I was considered a “young one” 12 years ago and sought after for the fire brigade on French Island. Now I’m dads army old and look keenly on the 50 y.o. + newer island residents for the CFA. You’re right though. We bring experience to a project. Move more carefully and thoughtfully with past experience in mind and get it done just as quick and maybe better. 
 

Here is an example. Front end loader drops logs onto the frame then as cut they fall into place. Wood frame placed at the garage and then picked up and lifted  into the fireplace. Actually  feels like I cheated myself out of a job.