Building a New Grass Strip

[Poolguy]

I'm looking at putting in a grass strip at a piece of property we own just outside of Palmerston, Ontario. I have read the COPA guide to building a strip, anyone with experience building a farm strip care to offer any tips or suggestions or things to avoid? We are just in the preliminary planning stages thus far. Grass type matter? etc.?

Has anyone dealt with Hydro in regards to burying lines in a section? I have emailed them for information,

I have approx 1700' from a river to the road. Will mainly be used by me in my 115hp Shortwing Piper, I currently operate off of grass strip of similar length.

[pdw]

I planted rye grass after crowning the centre a bit and levelling it well (you don't want an undercarriage destroyer). You're probably underdrained over there; if so, uncrowned is likely also OK. Put the windsock(s) where it's easy to read and also representative of the active.

[redlaser]

Just make sure that the strip is oriented in the direction of the most favourable winds, Otw you may end up. X/W for T/O and landings, and trees along the runway create turbulence making landings difficult, i

[JasonE]

I ran my Cherokee in/out of a friends grass strip last summer. Taxied up and parked on the front lawn. I keep thinking how nice it would be...Except I'd need a different plane with Skiis for winter.

[PilotDAR]

In addition to the good preceding advice, consider tile draining before you finish and crown the runway. I tile drained the most wet areas of my runway, but wish I'd done more. I'm planning more...

I have no experience with putting wires under, but if they are off the departure end of 1700 feet, I suggest it'll be very desirable to minimize the pucker factor on hot summer days.

Make peace with your neighbours early. I did, and it has afforded me 26 years of zero complaint home flying.

Don't forget to plan a decent apron, well drained, with taxi through parking into the prevailing wind and really well installed tiedowns.

[Poolguy]

Thanks for all the advice everybody, I'm meeting with a Hydro One representative this Friday to discuss options and costs associated with burying the section of lines. I'm also going to plop a windsock in the middle of the field and have my father in law watch it and record prevailing wind direction daily. I will keep this thread updated as I progress, please contribute any relevant information or comments you see fit.

[PilotDAR]

You might ask Environment Canada for the history of the prevailing winds, but I would be surprised to hear it was far off about 290.

[parallel60]

This is an awesome thread to follow for me. One can dream....looking forward to it happening for you.

[I_Drive_Planes]

Thanks for all the advice everybody, I'm meeting with a Hydro One representative this Friday to discuss options and costs associated with burying the section of lines. I'm also going to plop a windsock in the middle of the field and have my father in law watch it and record prevailing wind direction daily. I will keep this thread updated as I progress, please contribute any relevant information or comments you see fit.

One resource you could try for determining your local prevailing wind is the Nav Canada Local Weather Manuals (specifically the airport climatology section) http://www.navcanada.ca/EN/media/Pages/ ... nuals.aspx. Just find the airport nearest yo you. Of course it wouldn't take in to account your unique geography, but it would give you a general idea.

[co-joe]

See if your library has a copy of the CEC, or if hydro 1 will let you photo copy section 74-Airport Installations. It's a page and a half. I don't have my 2015 (current edition) here, but the 2012 one basically says cable has to be type ASLC which I've never heard of, google says it's intended for airport lighting. Call a few wholesalers and see what it costs.

You'll want to look at Table D3 to figure out if you need to up size your wire for volt drop since 1700' plus how ever far away your service is might require it. 8-102 (2) allows a 3% volt drop.

12-012 talks about minimum burial depth for any buried cable and you'll have to meet that.

Really I'd talk to a sparkie that's done airport lighting, call around and see what's required and get a few quotes. This isn't really your run of the mill home owner's permit kind of stuff. I'd be lying if I said I knew anything specific about it. 74-010 talks about "ground centerpoise", I didn't even know that was a word in english.

To save on costs, you can do the trenching and back filling yourself.

Ontario has a habit of amending the code, so double check that it doesn't have other requirements not in the cec.

Lastly top of the head you need to decide how you want them to come on. Obviously Arcal will be expensive, Probably just a photocell, and/or a timer, or the phone your wife get her to flip the switch method.

[FenderManDan]

I sent you pm.

[Poolguy]

co-joe, This will not be a lighted strip, my meeting with H1 is just to discuss burying the service lines along the side of the road in the approach path, or at least putting Orange wire markers on them. This strip is going to purely be a daytime VFR grass strip for playing around at with the Cub.

Thanks for your detailed response though, it will come in handy if I ever decide to build a serviced hangar on the property.

[7ECA]

I've got a feeling that you will not be able to get any hydro company to bury lines, without a significant fee attached.

Good luck, and keep us informed on your progress with the strip.

[SuperchargedRS]

Just get a nice backcountry tailwheel and toss some ABWs on, eliminated the need for these silly runway things you speak of

[fleet16b]

I've got a feeling that you will not be able to get any hydro company to bury lines, without a significant fee attached.

Good luck, and keep us informed on your progress with the strip.

Years ago we tried to get the hydro lines buried at our strip and it was going to be very costly .
Fortunately for us all 4 lines run together across the middle of our strip about 60ft high so they do not cause any concern except in an overshoot . If that happens at our strip you have no choice but to overshoot under the wires.
The strip has been there since 1954 and we have flown under the wires so much we hardly think about them anymore.
On another note, we don't not encourage others to land on our property unless they call first .
For two reasons, one being the wires and second liability .
Liability is the only real concern I have if someone has an accident . If you own , maintain, allow public access to other pilots and aircraft, you could be setting yourself up for a lawsuit if something happens .
Other than that , its great having your own strip. Have fun and invest in a good tractor and brass cutter

[Poolguy]

My understanding with liability is that COPA covers it as long as the strip is registered and in the CFS, and that you continue to pay your yearly COPA membership dues. This information comes from another strip owner (where I keep my plane now) so I assume it is correct, I will for sure be looking into it further as liability is a top concern for sure.

As for the wires, they are on the approach end on the opposite side of the road, so not a MAJOR concern to be buried, but I figured I would inquire with H1 as to options, wire markers at the very least, buried ideally. I do agree that it will likely be pricey, I'm just curious as to how much!

My father in law lives out there and has all the equipment to maintain, hopefully he will enjoy adding the 3 acres of grass to cut to his list of chores, if not, having to cut the grass sounds like a pretty good reason to fly out there a few times a week!

[fleet16b]

We keep our strip unregistered so as to discourage surprise drop ins
Yes COPA has a program however we keep traffic to just us or by our permission .
We do this to hopefully keep the incident rate to a minimum and don't want an accident to happen that could give people or the town cause to be worried about safety and force removal of the field . We also do not want an inexperienced person to try our field because of the wires , grass conditions etc. Depending on the time of year, the strip is not always functional
The people we do allow in receive a really detailed briefing from me first followed by a post landing briefing also .

[co-joe]

co-joe, This will not be a lighted strip, my meeting with H1 is just to discuss burying the service lines along the side of the road in the approach path, or at least putting Orange wire markers on them. This strip is going to purely be a daytime VFR grass strip for playing around at with the Cub.

Thanks for your detailed response though, it will come in handy if I ever decide to build a serviced hangar on the property.

My mistake. I bet you'd be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to do even end lights and a lit sock.

Wiring the hangar will run you into section 18 - Hazardous Locations and into 20-400 Aircraft Hangars. Lots of fun. Because of the potential for explosive gas mixture in the air, the wiring methods get pretty particular as well. You can pretty much do whatever you want on a farm, but if you ever have a fire, your insurance company won't like it if you aren't in compliance. Lemme know when you get there and I'll see if I can point you in the right direction.

[7ECA]

Ontario must have very different regs when it comes to hookups in hangars/airports than BC. Most of the stuff you see is pretty standard, open air hangars with Teck and waterproof connectors (although you could go with explosion proof connectors if you want to play with the chemicals and pay the added expense), and in enclosed hangars standard wiring practices apply depending on what you're doing.

[Bede]

Word of advice to the OP, airstrips are far more expensive to put in than originally planned. I put one in and it's cool but it was over $10k. You really need more than just a dozer, and you'll need some time with a good operator on something smaller like a D5 with a 6-way blade to make it smooth enough to land on.