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Field Condition...

Is not the first time, I have previously witnessed wheel furrows in the drive-in area by a heavy vehicle. I realise this is a flood retention basin with reduced hire fees, but still deserves a little more respect than given.
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At least they didn't drive across the landing strip this time Smile
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Has anyone been down to the field to have a look and see if its starting to dry off a bit?

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  ~Leonardo Da Vinci
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I can be at the field Saturday morning 7.15am with rake and rubbish bags to help clean up all the mess/rubbish..

"She'll be right, I'll fix it in the air....."
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It would be good we could do some of that I'll bring down some of the bushcare bags and I'll contact Talia and ask if the council could pick them up and take them away

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  ~Leonardo Da Vinci
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Is it going to need a mow? Would it be helpful if a few of us bring mowers (if they fit in our cars, that is?)

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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RE; working be tomorrow Saturday???.

Hi everybody. I visited the field this morning about 1030am
Peter was very busy trying to mow the strip about 60% is out of action due to flooding the car park is completely unusable at the moment then walking in the only *option*. so a lot of rubbish laying around , my suggestion is to have a major working be tomorrow lots of hands lots of rakes lots of bags and lots of helpers especially helpers are needed, so come one come all to the major cleanup. Or so I hate to tell everybody this but I counted at least 30 coral trees there sprouted up since the heavy rain.

Kind regards, Bob.
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Hi Bob,

Is this the Official ruling for tomorrow ...?

ie: Field out of action for landing gear aircraft. Belly landers only. Walk in only.

Do we need to bring mowers in the morning ? Or is it still too wet ?

Or do we postpone everything till the afternoon ?


Happy to help in any way,

James.

"She'll be right, I'll fix it in the air....."
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It's still sunny, hopefully we might get some more drying out of the field today. I'm intending to get there early so perhaps we can do a "pitch report" when we get there tomorrow eh James?

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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Main strip with soft spots about 1/3 mowed with a chicane in front of the pilots box, taxiway and northern cross strip mowed with a few soft spots, helipad done. Car park still has water. Walk in only and don't wear your high heels.
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Hi, James. Basically what I meant to say is we gather need the cleanup the rubbish first and looking at it this morning we need as many hands as possible to do that, Pete actually mode most of the runway that could be done the rest is going to have to wait a few days at least until it dries out.

Kind regards, Bob.
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I'm here.

Field is ok. Parking area a little muddy so wear boots. My feet are already soaked. I walked in, but personally I think it's firm enough to drive in. I will wait for a committee member to decide upon that though.

Bring a tarp for your stuff.

There's a lot of rubbish so bring some bags

   
Great job with the mowing Pete

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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(09-05-2015, 08:19 AM)symowallo Wrote:  I'm here.

Field is ok. Parking area a little muddy so wear boots. My feet are already soaked. I walked in, but personally I think it's firm enough to drive in. I will wait for a committee member to decide upon that though.

Bring a tarp for your stuff.

There's a lot of rubbish so bring some bags


Great job with the mowing Pete
Thank you for making the effort to turn up early & report on the field condition. Unfortunately if the parking area is muddy enough to need to wear boots, it should be considered too muddy to drive in.
A committee decision for walk-in only has already been posted on "flying this weekend" thread. Better to walk in than to risk further damage. We have a forecast of good weather coming & will be a shame to jump the gun in this respect.
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Chill out Wayne, I never said I would drive in. Don't worry!

The field is drying out nicely at last. The strip is very narrow in the middle but by next weekend the usable width should double in the chicane section.

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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Took a walk in to the field today & met up with Pete & Ron testing out the remote control mower. Would have preferred being presented with better conditions than the mixed bag present. Good news: grass hasn't grown sufficiently to need mowing again, paspalum has stopped growing. Bad news: even though only 2mm rain fell Wednesday it was sufficient to impede the drying out of our field & runways unable to be widened or lengthened.
Pete & I had a good look at the spectator area & the only place dry enough to sustain vehicle traffic is the no standing area, so on behalf of the committee we have decided that walk in only is for access Saturday, to be reviewed for Sunday.
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Hi Wayne,

Has any decision been made about drive-in or walk-in for tomorrow (Sunday 17th) ?

thanks,

James.

"She'll be right, I'll fix it in the air....."
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Looks like a fair bit of rain is going to stuff up our field today. If possible, can someone do a report this arvo. Pete, you mentioned bike wheel ruts, can u please expand on that comment.
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Hi Wayne,
Hope your well and truly on the mend !!
I've been down to have look at the field this afternoon and the news is in no way good.
There is water over most of the strip and the driveway is way to muddy to drive in

Still possible to have a fly tomorrow but it's going to call for hand launches and precision landings and some shoes that can handle the swampy conditions

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  ~Leonardo Da Vinci
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I went for a look late this afternoon the ground is still wet and muddy but the water on the strip has subsided a little
If the weather's nice tomorrow there's no reason not to take a hand launcher and walk in for a couple of flights

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  ~Leonardo Da Vinci
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Dropped in at the field today and was absolutely horrified at what I saw. I think this is the worst attack by the motorbike morons ever. Without much work to repair the multitudes of wheel ruts, anything but belly landers will likely lose it's undercarriage on landing if able to take off at all. I have normally taken it upon myself to initiate these repairs with a trailer load or 2 of soil, but I am out of action for at least another 2 weeks.
The ground was still soggy from the 25mm of rain last Thursday/Friday and was the reason why walk in only was requested. Several cars today did not observe this directive & some minor damage done to the drive-in ramp & although they did not drive on the more severely saturated parking area, they were parked in our no standing area.
We do go to a lot of trouble to monitor our field for the purpose of forum reports & directives to protect our field. Our field is a flood mitigation area and is severely affected by as little as 10mm of rain in a short period especially when the soil is already saturated. For this reason, if we have had detrimental weather during the week preceding the weekend, please read the forum & follow the committee directives. Walk in only means no driving beyond the open area at the top of the entry ramp, preferably before the first gate. If your health does not allow you to walk the distance, leave your flying for dryer days.
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Hi Wayne
I went for a quick 3 battery's yesterday. The damage looks worse than what it is. The high use areas like the strip and car park are less affected. The less compacted long grass areas have deep ruts.
So my advice is when ever there is good weather go down walk in and have a quick fly !
srl
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If we plan to fly tomorrow (Saturday 30th May) should we take along a spade / pitch fork and try to flatten things out ?

Also, are we driving or walking in tomorrow ?


james.

"She'll be right, I'll fix it in the air....."
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I had a look at the field this morning
Its still a bit too damp to drive in so its going to be a walk in day tomorrow
The damage is not not too bad it certainlt looks worse than it is
Sharpie and i spent some time yesterday flatening it out so you shouldnt damage wheels or under carages landing on it

But yes walk in please its still wet in places and we want to keep tyre marks to the minimum

“The knack of flying is learning how to throw your machine at the ground and miss.”

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your thoughts turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."  ~Leonardo Da Vinci
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HI, guys. Called in the field this afternoon, definitely a walk-in only. Ramp and car park area still fairly wet the rain we had this morning didn’t help much either.

I also, was looking that the inner gate the way the bike is getting in is to drive over the hill and come through the narrow gap at the second gate I think maybe we need to look at the second gate to prevent them from doing that, if anybody can have a look at it and come up with a good idea much a appreciated.

Kind regards, Bob.
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Concrete barriers

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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Has anybody seen the opening scene of a movie called Easy Rider. Piano wire would work but not worth the repercussions.
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I wasn't joking about concrete barriers. Well, mostly.

10 bags of concrete for the left side of the second gate and I'm not sure about the right. Maybe two concrete posts, about 10 bags worth each, and steel posts spanning across them, for the right hand side ?

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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Can't they simply drive across from the other side at low tide?
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We'd probably run into trouble with the council (... whichever one it is that takes responsibility for that part of McCoy Park) by creating access/exit obstacles.

This is just one of the frustrating facets of having our field at the current location - and when we line 'em up, it's a problematic list ...
1. It's a swamp. About three or four years ago we had to move the runway north about 20m because of constant inundation and that was a major hassle because we lost airspace at each end of the strip. Even now we lose way too many days per year because the strip is unserviceable and it's getting worse because there are large patches of earth in the runway(s) which are sinking.
2. There are two councils that are apparently responsible for different parts of the field. Parramatta City Council owns the flood basin proper, but apparently Blacktown City Council is responsible for the access way and the ramp - or at least that's my understanding from the Secretary. In terms of making decisions and getting things done to improve our situation, this is not helpful - having one council to deal with is like a hangover without the fun of the night before, having two is a pain in the arse.
3. We pay Parramatta City Council about $1,500 a year to have access to their swamp for three days per week (which nobody else wants and is basically freely accessible land for other recreational users) and we get no concession when it's unusable. I don't know what other sporting/recreation clubs pay, but if our flying field had a location (with shade structures and toilets) and an elevated position like the established cricket/football field on the western end of McCoy Park then it'd be a good deal.
4. As we've re-discovered, we get visited by bikers and other vehicles periodically (we have been for years) and there's no real solution. PCC haven't the resources (or will) to prevent it, so it keeps happening.

In PCC's defence, they did spend about three times our entire club's assets themselves, in removing a collection of huge willow trees at the western end of the strip a couple of years ago. These were a real problem in terms of restricting our airspace, and it was fantastic to see 'em gone. Granted, they were a pest in their definition as well as ours, but they did remove them when the Secretary requested it.

In summary: It's frustrating and it has been for years and barring some sort of miracle, it ain't going to change. I think it's necessary that some of the newer members of the club are aware of this though, so that they're not under any false illusions.

So, there ends this week's vent from the miserable ol' turd.

Steve Murray
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LOL, fair enough Steve. Maybe we need to take the Italian approach and just concrete the lot, makes it easy to hose down, stops bushfires - beautiful! And the leftover concrete could be moulded into a couple of concrete lions.

(PS I am being sarcastic!)

FrSky Q X7 Mode 2, Turnigy 9XR Pro and Evolution. Multirotors, planes plus a couple of heli's. Too many to list.

Aaaaand if the wife is reading this: "The club made me buy these planes, I had no part in it, honestly!"
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