We made a RUNWAY in our BACKYARD! (mostly...this is how)
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- Опубліковано 16 жов 2021
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So for quite a while now, even before I quit flying for the airlines, I’ve wanted to live on runway. The ideal situation was to buy land and build a runway, but that was likely never going to happen due to cost and lack of land around.
Recently we had been thinking how cool it would be to create a Pilot Lodge, a sort of flight school with onsite housing for students, focusing not just on churning out new pilots, but teaching true flying skills, making students the safest and most competent pilots possible. Of course, there’s no better place to do that than Alaska, and as luck would have it, we stumbled into our dream property. Over 100 Acres, with a home, hangar, and it’s own airstrip, just a 15 min flight from downtown Anchorage.
Now if it was just an amazing home with a great hangar, perfect runway, and with a few guest cabins on the property for students to stay in while flight training, that would have probably been out of our price range. Honestly, after looking for years, it’s also a bit non-existant.
So this is our new home. The runway is great for bush planes like a Super Cub, but could use some improvement for students flying 172s, the hangar could use a coat of paint or 10, we’ve got some work to do building housing for students and CFIs, and there’s plenty of house projects to go around.
So this is our story, or at least a new chapter in our story.
Building my dream of a hangar and home on a runway, on our runway and
building a Pilot Flight Training Lodge in Alaska.
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-Jon - Авто та транспорт
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I'm sure you have figured this out or someone has already said it. Airplanes are engineered for a reason. So are roads and the aggregates of which they are made. Top soil goes on top for a reason. Its high organic content makes it hold water, freeze and thaw (expand and contract) and become mud which squishes around. You don't build a house on swamp mud for that reason. You digg down and pour a solid footing. So too with a road or runway you want as solid a base as you can manage. Rock/clean gravel if possible. Then a "road base" which has smaller rock and some finer material but no "dirt/top soil." Just the stuff you would find a couple feet under a normal field. Once that is laid in and compacted you want a layer of organic soil, buy only enough to get your grass to grow. I applaud you for doing this yourself. You have made most every mistake DIY road and driveway builders who come to my gravel business typically make including overfilling their dump trailers. Most people don't realize a yard of gravel weighs 2700 lbs or more depending on its moisture etc. A trailer rated at lifting 1500 lbs will struggle dumping a half yard let alone 3 or 4. If you want to fix your loader brakes:often a single wheel is the offender. It starts a leak and the brakes won't hold pressure. They are a pain to rebuild if it's possible anymore on an older machine. So...you don't need 4 brakes but you need some. Take the hose off at the offending wheel, insert a roofing nail of the appropriate size, put the hose back on and tighten it up. Bleed the brakes and you should get better action from the pedal. Make sure you purchase a STC for that roofing nail from me. I run a gravel and dirt moving company and would be happy to offer any help I can. I hope your place fulfills all the dreams you have and enriches the lives of many pilots. Thanks for all the great videos.
You already know this is going to be every pilots dream
Living the dream. Suggest you hold off “finalising” the ramp or runway until the soil-works have good time to settle. Vibrating roller would fast-track that but even still - nothing beats time. Drainage will also be important. Ensure you have good run off drop away from your core works. If not, go back and put in drains as water will eventually undermine you.
Watching the high speed of you jump in and out of the loader, with it losing pressure, then using that with trailers dump mechanism has made my day. I was dying lol. Thank you, most people just skip through this kind of discovery process.
Fuel for the aircraft. SOLAR for the house and hangar !!
Your best video ever. Good to see another side of aviation.
I've got a whole new appreciation for runways now...especially gravel and grass strips
I believe you boys are doing a great job, especially not being familiar with heavy equipment, You learn a great deal by doing and learning what works best.
It has certainly been LOTS of learning. Lol
Watched friends build a private strip. COMPACTION is essential. The more the better. Grass will grow over time and spread. Don't think you need to seed everywhere. If the compaction is well done, you can fly while the grass grows. Rock //> Gravel //> Well compacted dirt on top. Loose gravel will ding propellers.
Awesome! When I get ready to make my own runway I can get back and watch these videos again! Gonna be a while, but, it's all ground work before the big adventure! 😎😁
Your "trencher attachment" for the dozer had me falling out of my seat laughing! Some good ol back country "innovation" there!
Water is key for compaction. Keep it damp and just keep driving over it every 6 inches of fill, back and forth so there's tire marks on all of it, then fill the next 6" lift. No need for separate equipment. Also, grade the runway to drain to one side or the other so you don't end up with a muddy mess every time it rains. The ramp sounds a little steep. I would keep it under 5% grade, otherwise you'll have issues filling tanks to the top, and planes rolling away before tie-down. 8% is where you are at, and that will shut doors on you by gravity. That's the max slope of an ADA ramp for reference. Be aware that looking "level" is usually just planar and can slope significantly even if it looks level. To get a nice consistent grade, use the laser to set the top of wood stakes at the grade you want and grade right up (or down) to them. No guesswork. Maybe I'll get up there in the summer and get a tailwheel endorsement. I'll have to bring my survey gear when I do.
Also, you don't compact soil with a steam roller. Those are for smoothing out paving and aggregate base, not compaction. A Sheepsfoot compacts soil, or like I mentioned, any heavy tractor will compact easily to 80-90% compaction.
Thanks for the advice! Deff bring your gear up here...lol We'll be working on runway #2 and #3 next summer
If he already put everything down as one big thick layer should he pull it off and go back in as 6-inch layers? Is that the best for compaction?
@@chrisruf7590 Seeing as he's not building a structure on it, it's probably fine. They kept rolling over pretty much every inch with both machines, so it's nothing to worry about. If some spot started to sink, they could mitigate that spot when it happens. If a structure went down on the fill, they should go down to native and fill it in lifts just like that. I've had projects go down 30 feet into bad fill dirt and do exactly that.
please post as many of these as possible! i loved every second
11:25 loving the ingenuity 🤣🤣🤣
Oh yes.. runway house is the dream
Hey Jon, I'm the Buckeye who met you at Wasilla Airshow! This is looking great, and I hope to see it one day! Go Bucks!
Looks like fun. The State of Alaska probably has an aviation dept. Under their DOT. They should have info on runway construction and it's probably free. Good luck.
Hang in there, you're doing great!
Thank you!
The fishing, Salmon, 🫶🏾 digging this.
Looks like y’all are getting it figure it out best way to learn is to just start doing it. I laughed when you said the grader didn’t have breaks lol none of them do that what the blade is for keep it close to the ground when your in tight area and the machine at full throttle so you can throw it down real fast. After I buy a new piece of equipment I always try to change all the fluids/filters might not be a bad idea for y’all check all the screens and magnets for Metal if you catch something early might save you a lot of time down the road, equipment breaks it’s almost guaranteed make sure you put whatever fluid it calls for to go back in it. Hope this helps
So excited for this series!
Jon, thank you soo much for bringing me along. I get to see the man that's living my dream!!!! I super enjoyed your video and can't wait to see the follow up!!!!
Congratulations, what a fun project and plan.
What an amazing idea John! I wish you all of success and look forward to many amazing flight training videos!
Can’t wait for part 2, awesome project!
Awesome stuff, living the dream!!!!
your living my dream!! Keep the details coming
All the best what a place big plans ahead cheers
Wow - what a project - and so much learning... admiring your DIY approach - you guys make a good team - can't wait to come and say hi on the ranch
Looking forward to it! Hope you make it up here soon!
Amazing!!! Good luck with your spectacular project and dream, Jon 👌👏👏👏
Thanks so much! It's awesome making it come true!
You’re doing a great job.!👍🏼. Endeavor to persevere.!👍🏼. Can’t wait to fly out of there someday doing some training with you and your team.
I helped a buddy build a runway on his property this year, it was a dry summer here in the pnw and it was a dirty, dusty but a heck of a lot of fun endevour. At first it was just going to be turf, then someone offered us 550 tones of free gravel fill and we decided to upgrade and made a nice raised grade 900' strip. It was even more fun landing it for the very first time, well it was damned right exciting actually. Your in the best part of your life when you get to jump on machines and build an airstrip.
Looking forward to checking out the airport plates
Dirt work takes years to learn, props to u for just hopping in
This was great to see up close what's involved in building a new runway. The location looks beautiful! I can't wait to see how this develops!
Thanks Adam! It's certainly an amazing place!
So awesome Jon. you are really living the dream. i bet you dont miss that airline life one bit do you.
I wouldn’t mind go up there and training with you guys.
Please keep us posted
Come on up!
Offset your grader tires and use it to help compact your dirt. Or a loaded tandem axle dump truck. Still not as good as a compactor roller.
Wish I could come trade skills. Having my own grader and other dirt equipment as well as electrical and mechanical skills. Love your plans for a bush school in Alaska.
What a great adventure. Living on the runway was my dream for a long time but figured out I don’t really like to mow or spend time maintaining a runway! Will definitely be following your progress and would love to visit for some back country flying!!
It certainly is a ton of work...but so far it's still lot's of fun...having the right equipment makes it a lot easier
Wow, congrats! What an accomplishment for you guys!
Thank you!
I have a grass strip in Wasilla. Red Rye is the variety of turf to plant. Hardy and doesn't grow too tall if you don't have time to mow it often.
Any difference between that and the "red fescue" folks talk about?
I don't know about red fescue. I had a fescue lawn in California and the blades were coerce and wide. Red rye is fine and almost cylindrical. If you get to Wasilla you can check it out. East end of Upper Wasilla Lake it runs south from the shoreline 1000'
Welcome to Alaska brother!!!
Great freaking video man!! I really want to get this done!!!!
EXTREMELY INTERESTING!!! More please!!
Worst enemy of a gravel road/runway is water. You have the perfect tool (grader) to keep all your roadways crowned to keep all the water running off the road into the ditches
I sure would love to move to Allaska
Visited few years ago , wish I could have stayed
Good on you. Happy Flying
Thanks for helping me become a pilot. Proud of your work. What an incredible venture. Would love to come and study with you
Thanks for the note!
Excellent video. I admire and respect your boldness to execute your vision. You have a great plan. Hang in there. Working on something similar in NC.
Thanks for the note! Hope your project in NC goes well! It's been a steep learning curve here, but a lot of fun along the way too!
Where in NC?
FREAKING AMAZING! Can’t wait to come up and visit!!!
Come on up!
How blessed you and your family are!!!!!..... New subscriber too...
Great place you got there, congrats. Awesome to see you going for doing the work yourself, I thought it was just me doing that.😀
You need to remember that soil do not compact without water, you would like it damp at all times and roughly you will have a third of what thickness you started with after compaction when done properly. You also do not want the area to be compacted to be let say more than n foot deep at a time, otherwise you will have the top compacted nicely and over time it will go down and you will have an very uneven area with high and low points. Using G5 material for the bottom and going on to smoother materials as you are aware of is of great importance.
I constructed a bush strip on a hilltop 1900 ft X 50 ft, its a lot of work and it takes a lot of effort as you know by now. It was a great learning experience for me. It was always a dream of mine to fly in Alaska, In hopefully the last stretch of my four place Bearhawk 260 hp build, I can get to the dream to fly it to Europe, Ireland, Island, Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. In the meantime we build and dream on. Thanks for sharing your dream with us, its always motivating to see someones dream being realised after so many years. Have fun living your dream!
Thanks for the note and the tips! Certainly learning a lot about the types of material we have on the property and how to move them around, and then finally compact!
My friend Chris Curtis owns a maintenance shop called Summit Aviation in the Wasilla area. Look him up if you need any maintenance or especially engine work done.
Waiting on ep. 2
Amazing work. Congratts!
Thanks a lot!
Student pilot here who just worked with bush pilots for about 6 months in Alaska. Currently flying out of North Carolina but not the same experience, please keep us posted as to how taking classes with you guys would work! Thanks.
Hi from the uk. One thing been done over here before, get a load of road plannings (old tarmac from roads) spread it around, throw some red diesel over it, light it and Boom youve got your own tarmac 🤣or you could just get some plannings and compact it with a roller 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤣🤣
Wow! Fantastic!! Congratulations bro!!!
Thank you so much 😀
I had no idea you were in Alaska! Howdy, neighbor lol. I'll have to fly down sometime when your runway is finished.
Wow! This is exciting! I hope to come up sometime. I went through the runway building process myself. Just finished last year. Nothing like landing in your own back yard and taxiing right up to the house!
It's still exciting everytime!
How is that done ? Every state I own land in says it's impossible to legally land in your own land/Off Grid Ranch. California and Alaska said "NO"
Great run down of past few months of your project, congratulations!
Thank you!
That's awesome!
If you still need to move a lot of dirt next year, hire a wheeled motor scraper and someone who is really good at running it. The scraper will move more dirt in a day than you will with the dozer and loader in a week.
I’m certainly looking forward to the end result.
That machinery work looks fun, but anyone that has run a machine for 16-20 hours a day knows - IT’s EXHAUSTING :-)
Wow this looks fun! Can't wait to come visit and fly AK again
Training up there with you and my husband would be a dream come true!
Great Video!
Very cool!
That looks like so much fun. Hope i can stop by when i come thru. Maybe finish up my commercial
Very interesting stuff. I don’t know anything about that type of stuff, but I’m all about figuring it out as I go. I have a buddy who used to survey airports and land for future airports who’s brain I could pick for you. I’m just right down the road from you if you ever need a hand.
Great video of how not to operate heavy equipment. Good luck and hopefully you won't kill yourself before you finish the project.
Good luck though and love your channel!
Your pedal in your dozer is for mainly slowing down so you can adjust your pedal to make grade. I'm sure you thought of this, but if you didn't please make sure you have water flow off the run way and ramp. Love these videos btw
I live in Anchorage, might have a couple of us willing to come up and help with some of the projects. My buddy is a former Army Engineer and can drive anything up to a D-8 but refuses to drive a grader (lol) -- don't be afraid to give a shout out. Big Lake is not that far away.
Its true. I am the buddy, and been a fan for a while. Give a yell if you want any help. I’m retired and can come up pretty much any time to help out
Give us a call sometime! 234-738-2582
Great work to accomplish a dream goal.
You’re living my dream. Enjoy it all.
Thank you so much for this video bro. I'm planning the same thing. Just awesome🤘👍....
Pretty dope. I'm hyped to see more
Stay tuned for more!
This is epic!
My favorite video you’ve ever produced…..love it
Thanks so much!
That’s super cool! I’m getting my PPL now and will keep an eye out for any events you host! I see a Blue River Aviation plane👀
super project, will visit you some day
Welcome to Alaska!
The Alaska extension service came up with a grass mixture for Alaska runways, check it out
Very cool! Love the vision! I’m cheering for you guys! Let’s go flying sometime…
Thank you! Come on by and say hi!
Great project it all will be behind you to fully enjoy your handy work. nice if there was a lake near by for float training too. Looking forward to part two.
The lake is going to be a BIG project....we have a 900' pond now, 2022 or 2023 we'll excavate it to 1,800 long for float planes
He knows what we want 😭am coming please finish it asapppppp
amazing!
This is way cool ..what a dream come true .I wish I had u as a teacher...I would love to come check it out one day .I'm doing your ground school right now .u are good at this .keep it up .
Best of wishes with your ground school and we hope you come visit!
Pretty cool project
You’re living the dream! I just bought my own property with a 2200’ grass strip already on it. Now that I’ve seen the work that goes into it I appreciate it that much more. I’ll be following along and would love to come visit one day. If you and Steph ever back in Kentucky shoot me a message and stop in.
Will do! Congrats on the strip! You're lucky it was already there!!! lol
I just mowed the native grass that was on my property already, done. Frequent use gets the voles to move elsewhere. Since I installed a pop up sprinkler system, I never see any dust on takeoff. I drag a landscape rake on it every spring, then fertilize it, that's it. 35 years, two different runways handled like that. You mean to tell me all pilots don't have their own home runway??!
Awesome!
Man, I'm on JBER and looking to eventually finish my PPL. I would love to see this place as my dream is to live up here and have my own runway access. This would be pretty cool to see in person!
Congrats, was always looking for a good reason to go up to Alaska, looks like I found it!
Come on up!
That looks awesome!! I live in the mid-west and built a runway in a hayfield with a harley rake on my skidsteer for my C182. Wish I would have rented a road grader like you to smooth out the bumps and humps! Looking forward to seeing you summer of 2022!
What is your airport identifier?
Come on up and visit! We'll have an identifier soon, not on the chart yet. It's about 3nm north of the Big Lake strip
Great job man… all the best. Small advice, get Remote Radios so you both can coordinate and don’t have to jump out so many times if you don’t have them already. This is very inspiring.
Thanks for the tip!
finishing my 12 in Soldotna ill definitely be coming up for some training
Any updates on the project? I'm looking forward to seeing the next part as this idea is awesome! I wish I could move to Alaska :)
very interesting, good luck building all the stuff Dave Canada
Congratulations and best of luck! Still sorry you guys left KVNC.
Thank you! Looking forward to visiting this winter for a little bit to thaw out come december!
What a fun and cool project... In the capital state of G. aviation.. Happy for you
Matt from Diesel Creek is an equipment operator/UA-camr who shared grading his lot and building a road to it.
I might be one of your future students in 2023! so exited to get my ppl in Alaska!
Best wishes on your dream project
Thank you!