CSS Rocks

I heard the rock raking party completely prepped the LZ Saturday and its ready for seed. Nice job gang, and thanks! Soon Andy Jackson will have so much grass it will look like a golf course from the air. Is Rebar Dan going to put in a couple sand traps? Mike Z

Sprinkler Day

Well, I was one of those that showed up late... at about 11. My excuse is that I was trying to find a Barbeques Galore store that was open... because I melted my BBQ last time out. My actual reason is that I slept kinda late (and the BBQ, too). If Rob had been in charge of the Normandy defenses, I'd possibly be typing this in German. I was amazed to see how fast the work got done by 8-12 peeps. I brought food for more. For shame, for shame. ;) (from the guy who showed up late with no gloves) Here are some pics of the day (click images for larger versions): Diggin' and a trenchin' and a rakin' [url=http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay1-1024.jpg][img=400x225]http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay1-1024.jpg[/img][/url] The new sprinkler extensions from the air: [url=http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay3-1024.jpg][img=400x225]http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay3-1024.jpg[/img][/url] no wind at launch, so I got to pop my nose to get this shot of Mike Z launching: [url=http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay2-1024.jpg][img=400x225]http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay2-1024.jpg[/img][/url] deadwind landing (don't listen to the windsock, it lies!) [url=http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay4-1024.jpg][img=400x225]http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/system/files/images/SprinklerDay4-1024.jpg[/img][/url]

LZ Sprinklers 2007

Rob McKenzie made this image to show the new sprinklers and possible layout of future sprinklers. The new grass down the middle of the LZ is coming along nicely. Rob plans to try adding an additional head or two to some of the runs to see how coverage is affected. This summer will be a good test for water availability, as there has been so little precipitation in rain year '06.

Ranch Water

On Oct 8th in attempt to spark the start of obtaining water from the XC Ranch Canyon a small but hardy group of pilots lugged tools and concrete bags up the 350' vertical, 2000' long pathway. With minimal expense build a catch basin to tap into the 10+ gpm year round flow. If it is a success and we decide to take this water tio the LZ, we would be able to nearly quadruple our current supply.

The particular problem is that the spring source is located exactly in the base of the canyon. This means that every rain will erode the collection system. So we pooled our opinions and came up with a system built with 1000's of lbs of concrete and rock forming a hopefully sturdy system located on a natural rock layer just 20' downstream of the source. All we needed was to let a winter of rain pass by and see what the heaviest of the rains do to the system.

We sure didn't have to wait long. 5 days after the installation, the heaviest 1 hour rain that I have seen in 27 years centered itself directly over the spring. Hundred of homes in the north end of San Bernardino suffered damage from this deluge. Most of the gophers at the LZ drowned! (no kidding) Even our original spring system in the canyon to the east suffered massively wiping out over 200' of the main delivery pipe and burrying it in the canyon and all 3 collectors of the original system were damaged. It took 2 full days to repair the original water system.

But the new concrete basin stood up as designed. It was indeed full of sand and rock as expected but it only took 1 person 15 minutes to clean. As unlucky as it was getting all that rain at once late on Friday the 13th, it did allow us to be fairly sure that with no more than regular cleaning after the rains, we will now be able to triple the volume of water we get to the LZ.

Expense wise this has all been the easy part. What will now cost is if we decide to increase the area of grass at the LZ. Mostly it will be a substantial initial expense with more storage tanks, pipelines, sprinklers, grass seed, etc. To some extent the ongoing maintenance costs will increase but perhaps not proportionally to the area increase since we might be looking at a more cost effective mowing system. A tow behind mowing attachment on a club tractor?

This brings up the current discussion among the officers as to whether to purchase a club tractor. It would cost 15K to 20K for a decent tractor. Would the USHGF be willing to help by matching funds from the CSS? Perhaps we can allocate a few minutes to discuss all these developments at the upcoming meeting at the LZ 5:30 PM on Oct 28th.

Are there any club members out there who are tractor savy that can lend some advice?

A Loader off our minds.

Don't know where to start. Perhaps with thanks. Tom Trevithick for loads of info on what type to look for and ideas on where to look. From him came the scoop on trying www.rbauction.com . Then absolutely huge thanks to Gene Embree. He hopped on all the 28 auction skiploader/gannons in Phoenix this week and spent 10 minutes on each going through a series of physical and visual tests and gave verbal reports while I scribbled notes at a frantic pace to keep up with him. A thanks go to the USHGF ( www.ushgf.org ) for financial assistance and every member of the CSS for without all this support such improvements are not possible. Congrats everyone... we now own a 1999 John Deere 210LE. 4100 hours. Well maintained, strong engine, tight pins, good tranny. Should be at the LZ mid next week. We used to rent machines like this at $450 a day. Diesel fuel and a grease gun and we're ready to take our time repairing roads parking lots, training hills etc. After taxes it came to $18,377.00. Back to the Ritchie Bros. Auction in Phoenix on Feb 15th/16th. Of the 28 skip/gannons there were 14 that we had rated "undesireable" due to a series of problems like hairline frame cracks that probably nobody else would catch, or low compression, or engine mounts going out or hydraulic pump failing, seals, repair welds and the list goes on. I was able to evaluate the condition of the tires and whether they had enough air. Gene kept reminding me that rubber was minor in the long run. The auction had over 2000 heavy equipment items (they call them "lots") in the schedule. The 28 tractors we were interested in were near the beginning being lots #98 thru #125. As the auction started with #1, with Gene, Tom and myself seated near the front, I listened and learned at a quick pace as 97 lots sold in a short 70 minute period starting 7 AM our time. They speedtalk at a blurrying rate. Difficult to understand what they are saying. I was never able to see who placed a bid when they placed it and I was worried that when I bid I would not even know if they got my bid or someone else bidding at the same time. To bid you only have to raise a finger or perhaps just nod and make eye contact. The bid catchers are amazing. This damned fly started buzzing around my head and I couldn't even risk shoeing it away for fear we ended up with a half dozen bobcats or bulldozers. They have a system where they would sometimes bring out groups of lots at once. Sometimes in pairs and sometimes as much as 10 at a time. And of course sometimes just one at a time. With the entire group of lots lined up in front of us the bidding starts usually at about $10K and jumps rapidly usually at $1,000 per second or faster. When they get about 4 seconds without an increase it is sold. The winning bidder then gets to choose how many of the lots each at that winning price and then which particular lots by number. The cone runners drop red cones with "SOLD" printed on them in front of the sold lots and then the auctioneer starts over at 10K on the remaining ones. This repeats until all in the group are sold. And the next lot(s) are brought out. Our tractors started out with #98 and #99 as a pair. I blinked and the bidding was already above our $18,000 budget limit. They each sold at about $30K. So fast... by the time I was ready to raise a hand they were above 18K and I would scratch that one off my list, and took another breath to keep from turning blue. Yikes. It was hard to keep up. The first pair and another couple of single tractors (#100 and #101) sold well above our limit. Then came a group of 8, lots 102 thru 109. Now in this group there were 5 Deere's (our preference) and 3 Case's. We had "undesirable" labelled on 2 of the Deere's and 1 Case in this group and a low 12K bid limit on a couple more Deere's due to repairable problems. That left a Deere and 2 Cases that we would be willing to bid up to our 18K budget. Within the next 90 seconds it appeared that 5 of the 8 were sold and of all those I only once raised my hand to bid which was at about 13K or so and it was buried by subsequent bids within split seconds, again they were over our limit but now the bidding seemed to only hit the low 20's. You see, they line up the lots starting with the best thru worst as a general order. Plus the best of the group is usually sold first at the highest price and then the bids subsequently climb to a lower ceiling as lesser quality machines are what's left. I frantically listened and scribbled trying to keep up. What was interesting now was that among the remaining 3 in this group of 8, the best of the original 8 (lot#102) according to Gene (and my tire kicking) a Deere 210LE, was STILL available. Might have been that the other buyers were looking at the brand new tires and paint jobs on the 3 "undesirables" and didn't realize the engine or tranny trouble or frame cracks that Gene had noticed. And the 2 Cases that we considered buying to our 18K limit were later year than the Deere and the other buyers simply put more value on newness over make. But whatever the reason our first choice was still there. In a couple of seconds bidding started again and by the time I realized it, I raised my hand and was pretty sure it landed at a 15K bid. Focused like an undeployed skydiver down to 1000' agl I heard the "15-16-16-16-15-16-16-16" become "16-17-17-17-17..." and the bid catcher was making eye contact with me as he also scanned the other 100's of buyers, like he expected I might top the 16K bid that had just beat our 15K. In about 1 second of mentally freaking out (this business is way tougher than tandem foot landings) I raised my finger and nodded to the catcher and the announcer was then saying something like "17-18-18-18-18-17-18-18-18-18-18-fairwarning-18-18-18-SOLD-at 17". Say that in about 2.2 seconds and you can appreciate the chaos of the moment. So the parachute came out, and we had ourselves a tractor. Tom Gene and I were grinning ear to ear! But which one. A second after the auctioneer announced "SOLD" he asked how many tractors we wanted at $17,000, and I said "ONE" not to be greedy. Then they asked us to decide WHICH one we wanted and I finger spelled out lot "1 0 2" (the best Deere of the original group in our opinion) while Gene used his booming voice to make sure they understood #102. And they did, out went the cone to the front tractor in the 8 tractor lineup and the three of us high fived and headed off to pay for it. Only for a moment I wondered if the high 5's caused us to purchase a few more tractors. For a video on these auctions check out this link... http://www.rbauction.com/buying/howtobuyvid.jsp

A Tractor and a Green LZ for the Summer!

We have some changes and improvements happening at the Andy Jackson Airpark that we are asking everyone to help with in whatever way you can. First, is that we are looking to get a tractor in the next couple or 3 weeks. If you have advice on what to get and what not to, please contact me. And if you have any contacts regarding someone selling a tractor also please contact. At the LZ we are expanding the grass. Over the next 4 weeks we will have an ongoing work party. We have rakes, wheel barrows, and a lawn tractor to clean the rocks off the LZ. Anything you can do to help is appreciated. If everyone who flew did 15 or 20 minutes or rock picking each day they flew we would have it ready in just a few flying days. This means... when you are landing watch out for pilots in the LZ picking rocks!

More Grass

We are planning a work party coming up this coming Sunday and Monday. (Dec 31st and Jan 1st) We will be installing another water pipe this one is from the Cross Country Ranch. And also probably will go for installing the sprinklers widening the grass another 75' (making it 75% wider). The best just keeps getting better. We have a ditch witch scheduled to be rented so most of the digging will be done, it's a matter of placing and gluing LOTS of PVC tubing. Let's say all day Sunday and Monday. I'll put up an evening report (here on the CSS forum) on the progress Sunday night.