MACK Transmitter (Newsletter )
Wing Sheeting Tutorial
by
Terry Brox
Charter 896
MACK Field
Home of the
Model Association of Central Kansas
View MACK Field in a larger map
The new MACK Field is located just south of the intersection of Highway 56 and Railroad Ave southwest of the Great Bend city limits. The east marker above is the flying field. The west marker is Brining Farms LLC, where the meetings are held at 7:30pm on the first Saturday of each month.
The photo below was taken by Joe Dunnaway on August 8, 2010, the morning after the runway was laid.
Hote: Please enter through the gate, as indicated by the red arrow on the photo above. The house and yard, outlined in yellow, is NOT part of MACK Field. Out of respect for our neighbors, please do not use the driveways marked with red X's. Thank You! click here for larger image
Note: the
buffalo grass area is enhanced in the above photo for visual
effect.
WE GOT THE RUNWAY INSTALLED ON AUGUST 7, 2010! Started at 6:30am and got done about noon. We will still need to add more staples but it is down!
This photo was taken from about
130 feet from the north end of the runway looking south. One fourth
of the runway is not even in this picture!
The image below shows the basic plan we had for MACK Field before we started construction. As you can see, the final product looks pretty close!
The
inner green line represents the area that has
been planted to buffalo grass and will be
kept
short.
The outer green line represents the area that will be planted to brome to
provide an extra area of forgiving grass for
planes that don't make it to the primary
grass
area.
The
total area of grass will be approximately 12
acres with almost 5 acres of buffalo grass
and
Geotex.
The 515' x 51' runway and 258'
x 35' pit area will be Geotex, a geotextile material normally used as
underlayment for asphalt road construction. It is a very nice runway
material that is nicer to fly off of than both asphalt and grass. Click here for more information about the
materials used for the runway.
In most of the other installations are aware of, the clubs have overlapped the rolls of material and some have sealed the overlapped areas with roof sealer, or similar material. We opted to have all of our seams stitched. The runway and taxi area will be laid as a single piece of material consisting of 7 rolls of Geotex. The pit area is 2 rolls of material, also stitched together. So far, this seems to be a great choice, but time will tell how well the seams hold up.
This is Joe Dunnaway's brand new E Defiant. This was taken the day he made its first flight at the flying field. It is sitting on the pit area material. You can see the seam between the rolls of Geotex in both photos. As you can see the stitched seams came out very nice.
Revised 7-12-2011