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How do you keep the grass landing strip under control


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Agreed Frank - at Gravesend the sheep hold sway, and for aformentioned reasons, don't use wheel spats, take a spare pair of shoes and jet wash all aircraft when you get them home !!

We have an onsite mower that we maintain and we take turns!

However at Medway I believe they go out with a vernier caliper and nail clippers to trim the grass (It's that good!) E.D will put me right here.

Edited By Stevo on 08/03/2015 16:58:42

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We pay a club member to do it he also looks after the mower . The club supplies a mower and pay expenses etc .It doesn't cost a lot and we can guarantee the patch is in good order . We tried having rotas etc years ago but it always caused more arguments and no one really looked after the mower. The out field is cut by a contractor as required. Mower is in for service now ready for the coming season. The sheep option as said is a "No go" , so if you do share your field with sheep then you may have difficulty finding a club member who's willing to do it .

Hi Stevo. No we don't use verniers but a depth gauge does come in handy now and again wink

Edited By Engine Doctor on 08/03/2015 17:09:25

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Contractor... and its worth every penny!. A heavy cylinder mower has flattened the site, the moss has gone [rotary mowers spread it; cylinders pull it out] And when we get interrupted for a cut the whole site is done in 20 minutes to half an hour while we have a cuppa....

p1010195.jpg

And it's probably better than this now... [this was take a while ago.]

Edited By GrahamC on 08/03/2015 17:10:35

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Cymaz, really sad that you lost your equipment to vandals, very, very annoying.angry 2

We have a problem with vandals, not damaging equipment, but the field itself.

We rent from local authority, there is a lot of open land around our field, the various users co-exist very well. However we are sometimes visited by thugs on moto-cross bikes; the damage they can do in 5 minutes takes months to correct. 

 

Edited By avtur on 08/03/2015 17:47:50

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The reason for asking is that approx. a year ago our large metal industrial container , which our mower and other equipment was kept , was vandalised , and the engine from the mower stolen. All the necessary safety locking systems were in place and agreed by the insurers . We are still pursuing the claim .

We could not have prevented the vandals actually cutting through the container itself and attacking the door hinges from the inside .

We realise that the container was an attraction for thieves so we have now removed it from the site completely .

This is not the first time for this to happen . .

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We have nothing to burn down, so they just drove all over the strip and pits wheelspinning their trials bikes, twice so far. The last time was too late in the year to recover from so we have inch deep ruts where we'd over two years carefully vibrator rollered and sanded it to a nice smooth strip.

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Posted by Dave Bran on 08/03/2015 19:06:00:

We have nothing to burn down, so they just drove all over the strip and pits wheelspinning their trials bikes, twice so far. The last time was too late in the year to recover from so we have inch deep ruts where we'd over two years carefully vibrator rollered and sanded it to a nice smooth strip.

Here you go Dave, this will make you feel better..

Edited By cymaz on 08/03/2015 19:40:49

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Posted by Dave Bran on 08/03/2015 19:06:00:

We have nothing to burn down, so they just drove all over the strip and pits wheelspinning their trials bikes, twice so far. The last time was too late in the year to recover from so we have inch deep ruts where we'd over two years carefully vibrator rollered and sanded it to a nice smooth strip.

An old school friend of mine is now a farmer (too far away for me to fly from his land though ;() and has a small R/C car grass circuit for a club he runs - mostly friends. The same thing happened to him, apart from the fact they didn't see the middle of the track was actually a slurry pit.....2 bikes came out of it, drivers identified and had to pay all costs....

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Posted by Olly P on 08/03/2015 20:56:41:

The same thing happened to him, apart from the fact they didn't see the middle of the track was actually a slurry pit.....2 bikes came out of it, drivers identified and had to pay all costs....

Shame they weren't caught on video, I would pay to see that!

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The council do ours - and very well too. But over the last couple of years there have been rumblings from various quarters that "cost-cutting" may see an end to regular, frequent, mowing in the parks, replacing every two weeks in the growing season to maybe just once or twice each year in total! Hasn't happened yet - fingers crossed!

BEB

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