How do you keep the grass landing strip under control

When it comes to keeping the grass under control at your site

Do individuals bring a mower along and do a "bit"

The local authority does it

you hire a contractor

You have your own equipment

You let the sheep in

Etc .

Contractor (this might be best as a Poll).

Don't go with the sheep option, they may eat the grass but will leave you with their "gifts" and if the ground is soft their hooves will make it very rutted, we have sheep on out field in winter and it takes some time in spring to recondition the runways.

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

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 

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

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....

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

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

Willing to do... what with the sheep, Phil

Our Club Sec. Kingsley does it (chap wearing blue hat.....he'll never forgive me now!)

Video taken just before this hut, mower and all the contents were burnt to the ground

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

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

A real kick in the pants, you can just see the mower seat at the rear of the shed

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 . .

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.

I have sheep and really have no choice but its not too bad !

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

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

Council do ours and they do a very good job, no storing, maintenance or arguing, 40 mins and jobs a good un.

John

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....

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

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