I have been thinking about this for years. Ever since I started flying I have been intriqued with having an airstrip in the back yard with a cub to fly in the evenings. I have been on the lookout for land that would suit my purposes for what I want to do. Thus far nothing has come by that would suit my needs, that is in my price range so I will have to keep looking. I have been gathering documents and doing research to find out how to basicly build and liscense a private airstrip. Below is a partial list of documents that I have aquired. I have these in pdf form and would be more than willing to share.
1. The AOPA guide to establishing a Private Airport
2. The TX guide to establishing farm strips
3. The PA regulations pertaining to airports.
4. The IL guide to airparks.
I also have found a lot of good information here:
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/library...blications.htm
you are right about step 1.
ReplyDeletein 1994 i stumbled onto a unique opportunity just outside of simpsonville, sc (now SC47 airstrip plus about 12 homes w/ hangars) and it took about two years to make it happen (in addition to my full-time job).
17 properties all 5 to 7 acres each, around an 8 ac turf strip involving two years of full-time work. all properties sold within 10 weeks of making them available at about four months after starting (perfect timing in many respects). the full story is reserved for a couple of beers worth of a casual/serious chat on the back porch to just cover the tips of the waves about what to watch out for and how it all came out after a few years down the road > after the first few properties had homes and occupants.
with regards to preping the turf runway, find a farmer with a DO-ALL implement to final prep the runway after it has be turned and then disc-ed at least a few times. a DO-ALL is basically a set of discs and a flexible rake plus a chain-mat pad all in tandem. then get the farmer to drill plow seed the runway with bermuda grass or some other grass that has a strong root system, preferably drought resistant.
lots more lessons learned . . . that's for later.
don't get wrapped around the wind sock about crowning the center of the runway or finding a nice flat piece of property. more turf strips than not go up and down. the runway can go up and down along its length; planes go up and down following their longitudinal axis, so it's not a big problem to follow a runway which goes up and down. and, it works just as good to put a little bit of slope into the runway towards one shoulder instead of a crown in the center; follow the natural slope of the land for a lateral slope of the runway, this provides good water runoff to one side into a very shallow swale along the runway length to a low point for fast runway drainage and drying.
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