Airstrip in Hill Country
Aitken Concrete Supply for Airstrip in Hill Country
AITKEN CONCRETE of Gisborne were presented with an interesting project recently. To concrete an airstrip in East Coast hill country.
They were approached by a local hill country sheep and cattle farmer
who needed the airstrip for his Fletcher turbo top dressing plane.
Dave Aitken explains that there were some problems that needed to be solved.
“Firstly, with the new specialized fertilizers available there was a very narrow time frame available for application by aircraft to ensure optimum results. Secondly, the best time to apply was usually after a period of rain and the grass strip on the farm was too wet. Metal was not an option as the airstrip was too steep.”
“After discussions between ourselves, the farmer and the pilot we
decided to proceed with three strips of concrete each 600mm wide to
take the three sets of wheels of the Fletcher turbo aircraft. The
takeoff run was about 220m long with a set of run off strips to the
left to allow the aircraft after landing to turn and load (about 2000kg
of fertilizer) where it was inline with a straight take off run.”
Approximately 64 cubic metres of standard 25 Mpa concrete, using Golden Bay Cement, was trucked the 48 kilometres to the site taking one and a half hours, over a period of six days.
“The excavation and formwork was provided by contractor Shane Aupouri who achieved as little ground disturbance as possible,” added Dave Aitken. “He also placed the steel and concrete. The total job from excavation to finish took about ten days.”
Dave reports that the strip was flown off a month after completion with excellent results.