I flew into Goodwood Saturday and whilst they do a pretty good job of keeping their runways going, I can't understand the inflexibility shown? As I was taxiing to take off, I called up and offered to pull onto the runway where I was (half way between the tower and the hold) to save the grass at the threshold. There was one other on downwind in the circuit and I stated I was STOL ... but no
I was told to taxy to the hold as usual and take off from the bit of grass that is getting increasingly muddy.
Is there a law or something at a licenced field that says everyone must take off from the same bit of runway and make it more and more muddy?
IO540, I see no reason that draining a field with an airstrip on a 28 day rule would affect anything. It is good agricultural practice to have good drainage ... a more usable airstrip is just a fringe benifit
Clay soils are a bugger to drain, but do have the advantage of being "mole" drainable. This is where a bullet shaped lump of metal is pulled through the clay and a "tube" is formed in the clay itself. With mole drains there is no digging up of the runway required and all that is visible afterwards is slots which can be gently rolled down. Of course they have to be orientated with any natural slope, but as long as the slope isn't 90 degrees to the R/W any slight undulation caused wouldn't be a problem.
The above, and any other drainage methods all have to take account of where you are draining the water too as well!
My strip is relatively dry, but there is a nasty wet area between it and my hangar. It wasn't there last year but we've added a new silage clamp and the natural drainage has been effected by that
... I'll have to leave it to next summer to do anything about it now though
SS