Daniels - Work party - Saturday April 26th

[mingram]

I'm in contact with a PG pilot who owns a DR walk behind brush hog that can cut through 2-3" saplings. We have plans to use it to do some cleanup on launch at Daniels. His name is Drew Richardson and he lives near Lynchburg, just got his P3. He can get the brush hog up to launch in the back of his truck.

The current plan is to do this one weekend in April once he gets the carb cleaned. We will need some people to help cut/clear brush. I'm also hoping we can plant grass at the same time. Last year I got approval to do this from Nelson Lewis and Roger Ritenour. We discussed type of grass seed based on recommendations from Larry Dennis who recently seeded Eagle Rock. I also found VDOT grass seeding instructions from Staunton, VA - they use a more diverse mixture of grass seeds. Roger also has recommendations for, "The bottom half of the launch clearing, I have always tried to let short trees such as dogwoods, laurel, etc. to grow. Such trees never grow tall enough to interfere with your flight path and [if] things went really bad, they provided a crash cushion."

To plant grass we need to buy a pickup truck full of soil, grass seed, and an erosion blanket & stakes to hold the soil. We also need plan a work party with enough shovels to spread the soil and put it in place. If anyone has a pickup truck and wants to help with soil or has ideas about where to get the materials let me know.

April 26th - meet in the LZ between 8-9am to coordinate rides up to launch

[JohnE]

Matt
The weekend of April 19 is Easter. That could be a great time for many. I am out of town.

However, I can make April 26. I have several shovels, and can bring other tools, but no pick-up truck.
Thanks for leading the charge on this!
John

[mcelrah]

I'm in! - Hugh

[gdezarraga]

I can do the 26th. I can't offer much as far as tools go; but I can bring my hands.
-Gaston

[PTerry]

I will be flying in California on the 19th. I can help out on April 26th. Pat

[mingram]

Brush hog is ready to go. We're on for the 26th. I'm working on sourcing the other materials.

[mcelrah]

Doh! Now I'm out on the 26th. )-8 Hugh

[jeverett]

I'll be there on the 26th. I can bring a (small) chainsaw.
-John

[bjornholgerjernudd]

I expect to be able to do the 26th. I can contribute labor. Bjorn

[Thomas]

Unfortunately I`m on both dates in California. But if you have anything to do afterwards, please let me know this!

Regards,

Thomas

[jmcclave]

Matt,

Right now both dates will work for me.

Thanks for organizing this!
Jim

[mingram]

Work party this Saturday! I'm planning to meet in the LZ between 8-9am to coordinate rides up to launch. We can work out carpooling from Manassas as well. Bring gloves, rakes, cutting tools, water, and lunch. If there's interest I can provide italian subs from the Italian Store.

Current forecast is sunny in the 70s. Wind looks strong W/NW. Maybe too strong for PG which makes it easier to attend the work party! If we finish early we could go to Long Hill in Luray and practice launches.

[jmcclave]

I will be there Matt.

Thanks for organizing this.
Jim

[mingram]

I plan to buy seed and straw tomorrow. Anyone have heavy rakes and grass seed spreaders?

I'm also thinking of buying roundup. Anyone have a backpack sprayer?

[mcelrah]

I was supposed to be gone but plans changed, so I'm back in. I have a hand-pump sprayer (not backpack) and will bring it, along with saw, pickaxe, rack, pruners - what else? Don't think I can be there quite that early, but I'm coming. - Hugh

[mcelrah]

Rake

[mingram]

I bought:
20 lb bag of grass seed - $60
cheap rolling grass seed spreader - $36
2 bales of hay/straw - $9/each
2 roundup/hand pump sprayers - $16/each

I couldn't find natural erosion blankets. They only had those fake green ones so I opted not to get them.

I'm also bringing a chainsaw, the club weed wacker with blade, and pruning tools. I'm arriving at 8:30am to meet Drew with the brush hog and cart all the gear up to launch.

Plan:
1. Clear branches, rocks, and debris out of the way to prep for brush cutter. Work horizonally across the slope to cut brush on the sides of launch and work our way down. We may need a person with rope to help keep the brush cutter from slipping down the slope (I have light nylon rope). Behind the cutting we'll spray roundup.
2. Groom take off area soil to prep for grass seed. Clear branches, rocks, and raking the soil to loosen it up. Then we'll spread seed and lay down straw.
3. Cut down taller saplings farther down in the slot. These should be small saplings only. We can only cut what is within our property line. If there's any question ask me first.

REMEMBER: When parking at the LZ park completely off the road and don't loiter in the road so we don't disturb our neighbors.
Do not park anywhere on Old Mountain Road - this is the road going up to launch. Old Mountain road requires 4WD to get all the way up. Be careful not to spin your wheels in the gravel.
I will help coordinate rides up to launch for those without 4WD. I'll have a radio on 146.500.

I'm hoping to bring my wing in case we finish early and it looks nice at Long Hill. Or if it's too windy take a field trip to Miller's Head/Hogback/Dickeys to scope out what work needs to be done.

[mingram]

Just called the owner of Long Hill and told him we might show up tomorrow. He said no problem and that the grass is still short. This site faces West and is max 250 feet vertical. Tomorrow's forecast looks strong West so could be perfect for some training.

[mingram]

Great turnout at Daniels today. We did some great clearing on the sides of launch that should allow us to setup two wings side by side. We also cut down some of the taller saplings further down the slot. It's looking good. Stumps and rocks were cleared a bit and then we spread grass seed and hay.

Big thanks to:
Austin
Jim M
Ben K
John H
John E
Karl
Tom and Elio
Louis
Patrick
Drew
Bud
Hugh
Mark

[mingram]

7 of us are now at Long Hill. Conditions are switchy and a little cross from the north, but it's soarable.

[mingram]

Long Hill is such a great training hill - so beautiful! It was really gusty with lulls, but we all soared. Austin flew for over a minute - I think he bested Alex's soaring flight. Really good way to end the day.

[FlyingFelix]

Thank you all for your hard work! I feel a bit guilty for not being able to be a part of the launch cleaning crew today - I ended up working all day to catch up with work lost on those days I went flying instead of working...
Looking forward to seeing the new-and-improved launch at Daniels!

[John Anderson]

Yup, and my feeble reason for missing the work party is that I am in Baghdad. And not only a hemisphere away (... same ol excuses), I am grounded the next three days, thru the elections. Oh well, it was work and I took the bait. Still hoping to get back in the air this spring and summer. Thanks to all that did show up for the toil. --John

[mingram]

Thanks guys. Don't worry. There will be plenty of clearing work in the future.

The club weed wacker with saw blade worked really well on saplings.
The DR brush cutter was really tough to use on the steep slope. It took a tumble going sideways so we attached a rope and used it up and down the hill which worked, but there are so many rocks that it's not ideal.
For next time - we need more and better chainsaws. We had two, but one got jammed and needs a new bar/chain.
We cleared a lot of saplings down in the slot, but cut them and left them in place - which could cause thickets to grow. I'd be better to drag them to the side eventually.

Two 20lb bags of grass seed wasn't enough to cover all of launch. I needed more seed and bigger cups for hand spreading.
I had too much straw - 2 bails would have been plenty. But we covered the entire launch. Hopefully some grass will grow. We laid the seed at a good time - the next several days are forecast to be a lot of rain. Hopefully it won't all wash down the mountain, but that wouldn't be such a bad thing either. Maybe it would choke out the weeds. Launch is rocky and really needs a truckload of soil for seed. The center of launch will likely not grow grass, but we'll see.

I didn't use the roundup because I didn't want to kill the grass that was there and because we did a pretty good job cutting (and I don't really want to support Monsanto so I'm going to return them).

The stumps are the hardest to clear. We broke an axe and need a maul for next time. Or we could chainsaw them low and cover with a truckload of soil.

There's a huge boulder on the left side that budged with pry bar. We need to cut the stump below and maybe try to dig out underneath and roll down the hill.

The right side still needs more clearing. I plan to cut down a dead tree that would widen launch.