Construction of the Concrete Runway

The completed Charleston Stone Flyers concrete runway completed in 1996 

CONCRETE R/C RUNWAY CONSTRUCTION ON A BUDGET

By Bob Holmes, Jr.

The Charleston Stone Flyers Club of Charleston, Illinois, was formed in 1980 and its club members are as unique today as its flying field. The club founder is Larry Drake, who is well known by pattern flyers all over the Midwest. The flying field site was secured several years ago with a long term lease at a very low cost from Jerry and John Tarble, the owners of a long since vacated gravel pit. The club itself is just as important to this article as the actual cost and construction of the runway. Most clubs feel they must have a large membership to have a first rate runway for their club members to fly from. The Charleston Stone Flyers Club currently has 31 total members and like most clubs, the actual flying members are considerably less. Ok, I can hear it already, you are going to say, "I bet your dues are outrageous!". Well, if $20 bucks a year is outrageous, I guess you're right.

With just $5300.00 in the bank we set out to find a way to upgrade the old 30'x250' gravel and oil surface that had been in place for the past 9 years. Our field sits on 40+ acres that is joined by a lake on the back side of the flying field. We investigated several options for a new surface including replacing the old oil and gravel for $1500.00. We also looked into resurfacing the old runway with 2 inches of asphalt by a local contractor for $5000.00. Asphalt has a lot of maintenance problems and that type of surface has a tendency to lighten your R/C model airplanes over time by grinding off the tail and wing tips with their rough surface. The final consideration was to lengthen the runway 50 more feet and go to a smooth concrete surface. Estimated costs were well above $19,000.00 for a "turnkey" ready to fly runway. Concrete has many benefits including low maintenance costs, a clean surface and the ability to control just how smooth the final finished surface will be. After careful consideration and looking for generous donations of time, materials and equipment, we set out to keep the total cost of the project below $5000.00. The club members in a vote decided to use concrete for the construction of the new runway. Keith Walker a member of the Stone Flyers was elected as a foreman to delegate responsibilities, survey and see the job through.

One extremely important factor to keep we kept in mind when requesting business donations was that our R/C flying club is a non-profit organization and that businesses can take a full write-off for the difference between fair market value and the actual cost of materials they sold us! Many commercial firms are more than willing to help out a non-profit club. You can do this by finding out who knows whom in your business community to help achieve your goal. Two hundred fifty dollars worth of lumber was needed to build the concrete forms and that was donated to the club free of charge by club member, Larry Drake. We were able to secure our concrete at cost from Farrier Construction Co. for just $36.50 per yard for a 5 1/2 bag mix! We calculated the amount of concrete for the project to run 111 cubic yards for the 9000 square foot surface. Several gallons of plastisizer was also used in the mix at a cost of $6.50 per gallon. Lime screenings are basically a by-product of a rock quarry's operation. We were able to get several dozen truck loads of this material free of charge which we used as a base for the concrete surface. Heavy earth moving equipment was also secured by Charleston Stone Co. at no charge for leveling the runway. We used a wire mesh for reinforcing the concrete runway and that was donated at no cost by Mike Erickson of Eastern Illinois Pre-cast. The use of a power screed that is used to pave driveways and streets was donated by Drake Homes.

After all the necessary materials and equipment were secured, the next task was to survey and layout the runway. Heavy equipment was brought in and nearly a foot of dirt was removed from the north end of the proposed runway with a road grader and an end loader. Keith Walker and Mike Vaughan donated their time to run the heavy equipment for the club! Bear in mind when you are looking for heavy equipment and operators to consider contacting the National Guard in your state. Often they will come in to do a job like this for the practical experience at no cost to your club. This can be a huge savings for the cost of such a project. Earth moving is a large part of the expense when building an R/C runway.

Up to this point it was all pretty easy. Now comes the hard part! Leveling the grade could only be done cost effectively by using manual labor. Grade stakes were driven to make the 300 foot runway level, and we decided to make the 30 foot width of the runway slope six inches to prevent water from standing on it's surface after a good summer rain. Leveling the base is a critical step! We did this by hand for one main reason. Money! The leveling process had to be extremely accurate. The concrete had to be no less than 3 inches thick for strength, and no more than 3 3/4" thick to keep the project within our projected budget. Irregularities in the base greater than 4 inches total thickness could cause the cost of materials to increase more than $1500.00!

All 6 club members took shifts to pull a straight 16' 2x4 the full 300 foot length of the runway twice! (15'x600') This took about 2 full weeks for the first 30'x150'. There is nothing easy about getting down on your knees and pulling lime screenings with a 2x4 every evening, but it was great exercise. The second half of the runway took about 10 evenings of work. Finally, reinforcement wire was staked down in the 30'x150' section to be poured the following Saturday.

We chose a Saturday morning to actually pour the first 30'x150'. The Friday night before the pour, we pumped hundreds of gallons of water from the adjoining lake onto the lime screenings to pack them down and to make the concrete cure slower. A power screed was brought in on a flatbed truck for the job early in the morning. It took about 3 hours to pour the first half and another 3 hours to float and finish the concrete with three power trowels. The use of one power trowel was donated and the other 2 were rented from a local tool company. Professional concrete finishers were brought in to handle this part of the job at a bargain rate. These guys are usually more available on a Saturday than any other day of the week as well.

Later in the day, the giant concrete slab was scored into 10'x10' squares with a soft cut saw furnished by G.R. Mast Concrete. Sawing a score helps prevent the concrete from cracking uncontrollably. This piece of equipment was operated by Keith Walker, one of the club members. After scoring, a special rope filled the saw cut and a special caulking was applied to keep water out of the score so no freeze damage would occur during the winter months. Sure the concrete will eventually crack, but by scoring the surface, we will determine where it will crack and even then it will be out of sight below the caulking.

The terrific finish was then given accurate runway numbers with a dashed white stripe running its entire length. The job wasn't complete however until dirt was filled in around the runway perimeter and grass was seeded into the new top soil.

So what did it actually cost to build a 30'x300' runway out of concrete? Less than $4500! We raised the $5300.00 in our bank account for the project over a 10 year period by holding swap meets and through our outrageous club dues.

What's extraordinary is the excellent facilities we have at our flying field for its membership size. Over the past 10 years we have continually upgraded the property. We have a 24'x36' pole building with 3 open sides, a large Farmall tractor mower, 2 small push mowers, 3 park benches, 2 picnic tables, 2 R/C work tables, a windsock, frequency board, restroom facilities and an excellent concrete runway 30 feet wide and 300 feet long!

Sure it was a lot of work for just five guys to take on. We were, however, able to keep our total cost for the project to just a touch over $4400.00. It was six hard weeks of work, by the people mentioned in the article with additional labor provided by Richard McDivitt, John Padgitt, Rick Newkirk and Bob Stout. Today the Charleston Stone Flyers has one of the best R/C flying fields in the country for just $20.00 a year. Now that's a bargain!